Never My Destiny
by Galaxy Girl
Summary: Five Sages are awakened, and Ganondorf grows ever nervous of the fulfillment of the prophecy. Meanwhile, asleep deep in the Spirit Temple, she remembers the past they shared and her hatred for him grows...
1. One: Two Lone Stars

**Never My Destiny **

**A Ganondorf/Impa Romance**

**by Galaxy Girl**

This chapter was rewritten to edit out the suck and reposted on December 10th, 2006. I will be going back through and editing most of the earlier chapters in this manner. Enjoy! Again!

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PROLOGUE: A New Beginning

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At last, it was over.

Cheerful bonfires raged throughout the land of Hyrule as the people celebrated their long-awaited liberation. Singing, dancing, drinking and general merry-making were rampant, having been forbidden and squashed out under the thumb of the dark lord Ganondorf.

Lon-Lon Ranch was the liveliest place of all. Gorons, Zora, Kokiri, Gerudo and Hylians alike gathered around the pasture, celebrating the announcement that thousands had died to hear- The Evil King's castle had collapsed upon itself. The dark one was gone, cast away into the white nothingness of the Sacred Realm by the Six Sages, their beloved Princess Zelda, and the mysterious Hero of Time. The legend had come true, and the time to rejoice had come.

Those who were watching the sky that night caught a special glimpse of something unusual-- five glowing lights etching through the sky, leaving trails of glittering stardust; one red, one orange, one forest green, one deep blue and one a calm, mellow purple.

The five lights flitted to and fro across the starry distances, seeming to dance with joy. They continued skipping through the sky until they formed a circle around the peak of Death Mountain, illuminating the clouds for miles around.

Five brilliant flashes of light later, a group of silhouettes materialized on the mountaintop.

With a thump, the red light became the massive figure of Darunia, Big Brother of the Death Mountain Gorons and the mighty Sage of Fire. Sitting on top of his head, depressing his wildly static hair was a giggling Kokiri girl all in green- Saria, the Sage of the Forest.

The blue flash formed into the slender, silvery frame of Ruto, the Zora princess and the Sage of Water. Her fins flapped gracefully in the cool breeze, and she shivered slightly. "Woo, it's cold..."

"Ah, toughen up!" The orange light went out slowly to reveal a seated Gerudo woman, her flaming red hair strung up into a ponytail- Nabooru, the Sage of Spirit. "It's colder than this in the desert at night,"

"Yeah, this is nothing," Darunia boasted proudly, gazing up at Saria fondly and beating his chest for extra show. Saria laughed playfully. The big Goron had always had a special attachment to the composer of his favorite song.

"It's a beautiful view from the peak..." Saria whispered. "I've never been so high up before!"

"Don't get too excited, now, don't want you to fall," Darunia warned her, moving left and right and mocking losing his balance.

"Can Sages fall?" asked Ruto curiously.

"Want to experiment?" Nabooru suggested brutishly, prodding Ruto with an elbow.

"Don't fight, guys!" Saria scolded. "We should be happy! We helped Link save Hyrule, after all!"

"Hey, yeah!" Nabooru gasped. "Fancy that, a group of losers like us…"

Darunia smacked his lips. "A rock sounds good right about now."

"But I want to know something!" Ruto squealed. "Now that we've helped Link, and he's gone back to the past..." She paused. "What's going to happen to us?"

"Didn't you listen to Rauru?" Saria asked. "He said that as soon as Link regains consciousness in the past, all of time will reset along with him... We'll all wake up seven years ago, still Sages, but able to relive these seven years again."

But Ruto wasn't satisfied yet. "Well, yes, I get that, but... I guess I meant..."

She turned to her fellow Sages, a brief look of worry on her face. "Can we... stay here? In Hyrule? Or do we have to live in the Sacred Realm?"

"I think all of us want to know the answer to that," Nabooru said quietly.

"I ain't living in any Sacred Realm!" Darunia boomed in protest. "Somebody's gotta keep an eye on those rascals down in Goron City!"

"I miss my friends," Saria added gloomily.

"We will awaken in the past, with only the knowledge that we are Sages, and the knowledge that Ganondorf had taken over before Link stopped him. We will all live normally, in Hyrule, until our services as Sages are needed again," a new voice replied from the side of the peak.

All of the Sages turned to the fifth of them, Impa, the Sage of Shadow. She was a well-built Sheikah woman in her mid-thirties, with silvery hair tied in a ponytail, elaborate face markings, and body armor. The former personal attendant of Princess Zelda always had an air of wisdom and calm about her, and her presence was comforting.

She took a deep breath. "Everything that has happened to us in these seven years will be forgotten, so that we do not alter our fates and prevent them from occurring."

"You mean, we won't remember what our lives are like now?" Saria queried.

"Correct. We will relive all of the events from the past seven years, with the exception of those caused by Ganondorf's rule. None of us will remember anything of these seven years, except for the fact that we are Sages, and Link is the Hero of Time," Impa repeated.

"You mean I'll forget about my son?!" Darunia gasped in an outrage. He stomped his foot angrily. "I'll forget about my only kid?!"

"You won't know that you are destined to have a son," Nabooru explained very slowly, as she had grown used to doing with the Goron people. "Link will still be born, Darunia. But you won't know it until it actually happens. Does that make sense?"

He blinked. "... No."

"So I guess we just have to wait for Link to wake up in the past..." Ruto mused. "Then we'll forget all that's happened these seven years..."

They all went back to their own conversations, talking about what they'd do back in their old lives, before the Evil King took over.

Impa still stood in her previous place, alone, not wishing to speak to anyone.

Impa wondered if it would really be possible for her to forget.

She did not particularly want to.

The pinks and oranges and purples of the clouds blended together into a spectacular explosion of color, stretching out across the land of Hyrule. Soon, Link would awaken in the past, and a new beginning would dawn for the land of Hyrule. All of the violence, bloodshed, and hatred would be wiped clean from the people's memories, and everyone will be free to live the lives they would have had, if not for the dark one. Everybody looked forward to their new beginnings—chances to laugh and cry and love and rejoice and embrace fate the way it was meant to be, before the darkness and the deaths and the misery.

But there would be no new beginning for some. For one, rather.

Impa took a deep breath, and tried to remember where it all started. It was futile, she told herself, futile to hope that her recollection was part of anything permanent. But she remembered it anyway, simply to prove that she could—somewhere, in the back of her mind, she would know that once, she had known.

There is no such thing as an eternal darkness.

As with light, it must begin somewhere.

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CHAPTER ONE: Two Lone Stars

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"There's got to be some explanation for this! There must be some reason why…"

"But there's no telling, sir," the monk said solemnly, shaking his head. "No one saw it happen."

"But there's no way an entire village full of Sheikah can disappear like that!" the guard said in exasperation. "Someone has to know why!"

"Who brought her in?" asked the monk.

"A bunch of Gorons. They'd come down to the village to trade, and found it completely deserted, except for her. She was standing outside her home, looking around... Poor thing was totally inconsolable..."

"Have you tried asking her?" the monk insisted.

"She says she doesn't know," a second guard said. "We were thinking perhaps she'd been possessed by a demon and forgotten... And that's why we called you!"

"But I'm telling you, she's perfectly fine," the monk said calmly. "She's perfectly oriented and knows where she is, her name, and where she came from. But if you ask her what happened to the rest of her village went, she doesn't know."

"Can we talk to her?" the second guard asked. "If we can't think of an explanation, we're both gonna be in a deep pile of Dodongo crap."

"You two were in the village at the time?" asked the monk.

"Yes," the first guard answered. "We went to bed normally last night... And when we woke up, the entire village was completely deserted. We panicked, naturally."

"King Harkinian wanted us to be diplomats to the Sheikah to try and convince them to come to the new treaty signing in a few weeks..." the second guard continued, "But what are we supposed to do when the entire population of Kakariko just vanishes as soon as we show up?"

"The legend of the Sheikah says that a thousand of years ago, the first King of Hyrule was protected by a shadowed being that appeared out of nowhere... Ever since then, the Sheikah have always been devoted to protecting the Royal Family of Hyrule. No one knows why... I don't even think the Sheikah can say for sure," the monk sighed.

"We know that," the first guard complained.

"But we have to find out where they all went! Or we'll be held responsible!" the second finished.

"I don't think that questioning a sixteen-year-old Sheikah girl is going to get you two the answers you're looking for," the monk chided. "She's been through enough."

"What was her name again?" asked the first guard.

"She says her name is Impa."

"Well... do you think maybe we should let a sorcerer look at her? Y'know, to see if she's got any weird..." the second guard was starting to say.

"The Sheikah are all perfectly normal and human," the monk snapped.

"Humans don't just disappear like that..."

"Nevertheless," the monk groaned. "If you want to talk to her, go ahead. But if you upset her, I'm going to be forced to remove you. The king wants her to be perfectly comfortable and happy."

"Why?" asked the first guard.

"A king should be concerned when an entire race of people vanishes into thin air. He wants to make sure that she doesn't disappear too," the monk said, strolling out of the room.

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Impa was sitting on a large four-poster bed in the castle's infirmary, the events of the morning still fresh in her mind.

It wasn't every morning you awaken to find your entire family missing-- mother, brother, baby sister, her entire village, even. All of the Sheikah were gone, except for her.

She was an athletically-built and muscular girl, with bright red eyes tattooed with the Sheikah tribal markings: two silver half-suns below both of them, giving her the appearance of very big eyelashes. Her hair was a shade of whitish silver and very short, pulled back in a small ponytail. She wore the normal Sheikah clothing- a shirt, shorts, and body armor decorated with the eye symbol and a pair of bracers over both hands.

The Gorons who'd taken her to the castle had been very comforting, even as she was screaming like a child in loneliness all the way along the road to the castle. Things had been less comforting at the castle, with a series of monks and priests and guards and sorcerers interrogating her all morning... Always the same question, and always the same answer. Impa had been on the verge of breaking down each time someone new opened the door. She hated having such a big fuss made about her. Even the king had come in to see her at one point.

Impa remembered being surprised at how handsome he was. He had paced around in front of her, looking very concerned.

"I'm sorry to have to bring this up again..." he'd said quietly. "But... do you..."

"I don't know!"

The king had looked stunned at how she shouted at him. Impa couldn't take it anymore. She'd leapt up from her spot on the bed and walked right towards him, something that a Sheikah had _never_ done. Then, staring up at him with a look of defiance, she had continued.

"I don't know where my mother is, or my sister or my brother! I don't know where the baker went, and I have no idea why the Sheikah bodyguards at the castle have disappeared! If one more person asks me, I don't know what I'll do. If I knew where they went, I would have gone with them, all right?"

The king took a step back and watched her gradually breaking down. She'd quickly covered her mouth with her hand and stepped away from him. Her eyes were wide with horror at what she'd done... She yelled at the King of Hyrule!

Her limbs began to shake and after a moment or two of quiet realization, she collapsed to her knees, burying her face in her hands.

Harkinian had watched, and felt his stomach tying in knots as something shiny and wet came streaming down the sides of her hands.

Impa let out a little sob, and curled up on the floor. "Why am I still here? Why can't anyone tell me?"

He stepped towards the door.

"I want to die… I don't want to be alone, I'd rather die than be the last one!"

She'd melted away into a long sob, barely hearing the latch on the door click as the king left her by herself.

After an hour that seemed more like days, she opened her eyes again. It hurt to look at the light as her own dried, salty tears were staining her hands and face and stinging her eyes. Her knees were numb from being on the hard floor for so long. She stumbled to try and stand up, and shivered.

Impa was gripped with a coldness she'd never felt before today. There was this feeling that no matter where she went or how hard she looked, she would never find anyone who cared about her.

Stumbling back towards the bed, she had a seat and stared straight ahead at the wall.

Three hours later, here she was. Still alone. Now, here, in this empty dark room, she was set in her decision...

She wouldn't care.

If she was going to be the last Sheikah, she might as well get herself ready to be unloved and abandoned. She repeated to herself over and over that no one loved her, and no one was there to protect her... Impa was alone now, and she kept telling herself that, too. That way, she wouldn't be hurt...

Impa felt very coldly about the Royal Family's efforts to help her. After the king left, he'd issued a search party, and announced to the kingdom that anyone who knew of the Sheikah's whereabouts would be rewarded upon their return. But the fact was that no one had any idea where they'd gone.

Kakariko had always been a secretive town, as the Sheikah themselves were very secretive. Shadowy magic practices and martial arts were the pride of the race, and their long history as bodyguards to the Royal Family had earned them a place of respect among the Hylians. But even the Sheikah's allies knew very little about them.

A million thoughts were rushing through Impa's head. The last thing her mother had said to her the night before... The thought of what would happen to her if they couldn't find the rest of the Sheikah... What they'd do to her to find out where her people had gone. People had always wanted to know exactly what made the Sheikah so mysterious and able to slip through the shadows as silent as a Garo... what better person to experiment on than a young Sheikah girl, with no family to protest?

Impa could hear the people on the floor above talking through the pipes that fed the water pump in the corner of the infirmary.

"No sign of them, your majesty..."

"How could they have vanished like that...? It doesn't make any sense..."

"Neither do a lot of things, your majesty."

"And two weeks before the treaty, too. This has got me very worried..."

"We've tried questioning the Sheikah girl, your majesty. She really doesn't know anything about what happened."

"Have you asked any of the Sheikah in the castle what they think?"

There was a pause.

"... Your majesty... There are no Sheikah in the castle."

"What do you mean? Of course there are."

"No, there aren't."

"My bodyguard? Little Zelda's..."

"All gone."

"You're kidding me!"

"No, your majesty. The princess was never taken out of her nightclothes this morning. They found her crying in her cradle, all alone. There were no signs of a struggle... It appears that the Sheikah really are disappearing, your majesty."

"How could that happen?"

"I don't know... No one does, your majesty..."

"And we're keeping a close eye on the girl?"

"Absolutely... Especially considering..."

"Considering what?"

"Well, your majesty... It appears that the girl, Impa, is the only Sheikah still in Hyrule..."

"You mean..."

"She's the very last of the Sheikah."

The very last...

The words echoed in Impa's head as she sat on the bed, staring straight ahead. "The very last of the Sheikah..."

"Hmph. The better to be with my thoughts." 

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Later that evening, the castle was still in an uproar about the disappearance of the Sheikah. But there didn't seem to be anything that anyone could do about it... If the Sheikah wanted to vanish for some reason, there was little that anyone could do to make them stop.

An entourage of guards was escorting King Harkinian through the hallways of the palace. He was a fairly young king, only in his early thirties. With cornsilk blond hair and bright blue eyes, he was also fairly handsome. His brow was furrowed with concern as they headed for the infirmary.

"Let me speak with her," Harkinian said solemnly. "It must be told to her gently."

"Yes, sir," the guards echoed back.

Through the rafters of the wide hallway leading into the east wing of the castle sounded an unending scream. The infant princess was crying again. Harkinian shook his head, wishing that he had time to comfort her.

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Impa looked up towards the ceiling. Someone was crying up above.

It was such a mournful sound... Like the howling of Wolfos at night to the full moon. It reminded her of Kakariko... On a festival night, when they'd gather in a circle around the well and sing until morning or until their voices gave out and they all fell asleep in a big clump of bodies on the ground.

That wouldn't ever happen again...

Impa grew more and more annoyed with the crying as the minutes went on. She wondered if perhaps, she sounded that depressing when she was crying a few hours ago...

"It's just a little baby… maybe needs help," she told herself under her breath.

Impa stood up, and took a look around... There were more than likely people standing outside the doors... she'd no doubt be forced back inside if they found her.

She reached into the thin pocket on the side of her shorts and her hand grasped a small, round object.

"Something tells me that I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this..." Impa thought, as she pulled it out.

"But who cares? What are they going to do... tell my mom?"

She tossed the object on the floor, and there was a blinding flash.

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Reaching the door to the infirmary, the guards positioned themselves on either side of the hallway. Harkinian sighed deeply and lifted the brass knocker on the door, letting it drop three times. The ringing slowly faded out as his head guard spoke through the door.

"Young lady, Harkinian, the Great King of Hyrule, has requested an audience with..."

"Don't be so formal," Harkinian pushed the guard aside rather roughly. He leaned into the door and spoke to her. "Lady Impa... It is I, Harkinian... May I please come in and speak with you?"

The guards leaned in towards the door to listen for some sort of noise... Crying, sobbing even... Talking... Lunatic rantings... Perhaps some sort of weird incantation to curse them all into dying?

There was silence.

Several minutes later, the king knocked again. "Please, Lady Impa... I realize that it's been a hard day for you, but I must tell you something very important..."

The captain of the guard began to shout through the keyhole. "Open in the name of the-"

"Stop!" barked the king. "Be gentle!"

"Sorry, your majesty... But what if something's happened to her?"

"What will have happened?" the king sighed. "I'm afraid she may end up doing something drastic anyway... How would you like to be the last of your kind? We need to be very calm and gentle with her..."

"If the rest of her race has vanished, why not let her do the same?" questioned one of the guards.

Harkinian took a deep breath and shook his head. "What sort of king allows an entire race of his people to vanish? For whatever reason, if I could not save her people, let me save her."

There was still silence.

Finally, the captain grew impatient. "Your majesty, how dare she show such disrespect to you?" With that, he threw open the door and ran inside.

Harkinian was dismayed. He sped in after him, screaming. "Don't barge in on her! We need to be especially sensitive to her feelings while she's..."

"GONE!"

"What?"

The captain was standing on the far side of the bed that the Sheikah girl had been occupying. "Your majesty, she's not here!"

"What?" gasped Harkinian. "She's not here?"

The other guards were looking around in confusion. The bed was unruffled, a glass of water on the table untouched... It appeared that no one had ever been in the room at all.

What followed could be described as a great panic.

Harkinian's hands began shaking as he lifted a hand to his forehead.

"Your majesty... what should we do?" gasped one guard.

He spoke in a booming voice. "Find her! Find her, immediately!"

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Impa crept towards the tiny bed, realizing what she'd found.

This was the Princess's bedroom... And there, in the crib, crying at the top of her little lungs, was Princess Zelda.

She was very small, for her age of six months, with bright blue eyes like her father's and a fuzzy, miniscule wisp of blonde hair crowning her otherwise bald head. She was wrapped in a pink velvet blanket with her mouth wide open and yelling.

Impa couldn't help but pity the little princess. "Shh, shh," she whispered, "You'll give me away..."

There was a tiny gasp for breath, and the princess paused. She gazed up at her visitor with a shaking lip, and eyes that Impa knew could only mean one thing.

"You're lonely, too?"

Zelda let out another long scream and began gasping for air. She'd cried herself into exhaustion.

Impa smiled, only a little, and kneeled down next to the crib. "Your mother died giving birth, didn't she? My mother disappeared. I don't know if she's dead or not. We're sort of in the same boat, you and me, aren't we?"

Zelda was on the verge of screaming again, as soon as she gained enough breath to do so.

"You remind me of my baby sister," Impa mused, placing her hand in the crib. She felt tiny fingers grab onto it and squeeze. "She cried all the time... So much that my mother thought she was possessed. Mother used to sing her a song to put her to sleep. Hearing that song always calmed me down, too..."

Zelda seemed comforted as she held onto Impa's fingers. She seemed to have stopped crying, at least for a moment. Maybe she found Impa's voice soothing. Then maybe...

"Would you like me to sing for you?" Impa asked, feeling a bit foolish for talking to an infant.

Zelda stared forlornly at her.

"I'll take that as a yes..." she smiled, clearing her throat, "Okay... this is your lullaby."

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Guards, maids, butlers and cooks raced through the halls of Hyrule Castle, screaming back and forth to one another as they searched every room for the last Sheikah in all of Hyrule. Throwing open doors and digging through chests full of clothes yielded no sign of her, as did screaming her name through the hallways.

Harkinian paced back and forth in the infirmary, his brow furrowed with worry. "We've got to find her... If she's disappeared too..."

"Your majesty, we musn't panic!" consoled one of the maids, who had wasted no time in arriving to clean the empty room. "I'm sure she's somewhere around here... What reason would she have to disappear?"

"If she's gone as well, then an entire race of people has gone extinct from Hyrule!" Harkinian bellowed. "And only weeks before the new treaties are signed..."

The maid stopped stripping down the bed and faced the king with her hands on her hips. "Is that really appropriate to worry about right now?" she questioned.

"Do you realize what this could do?" Harkinian snapped, annoyed with her defiance. "The allies of the Sheikah will believe that we've done something to them... the war could start all over again!"

The maid wrung her hands together nervously, watching several guards go running by the door in clanking armor. "Has anyone checked the courtyard?"

"No sign of her," the king sighed. "Or in the kitchens or the basements or the dungeons... It certainly appears that she's disappeared out of her own accord... But I feel terrible! I can't help but feel that this is somehow my fault..."

The castle was a cacophony of panicked yells of guards searching for Impa, and the clattering of objects being thrown out of rooms as every nook and cranny of the great castle was searched. Other than that, the stone halls were silent, as silent as death.

There was absence of a noise that everyone in the castle had grown accustomed to since the death of the queen months ago...

Harkinian suddenly seemed to realize something. His eyes widened, and he listened again, carefully. "Elsa..."

"Yes, your majesty?" the maid gasped.

"Has anyone checked up on my daughter recently?"

"I don't believe so, your majesty... Princess Zelda was crying last I heard. No one has had time with all the searching to be with her..."

Harkinian shoved past the maid and raced through the hallways, ripping guards out of their searches in order to protect him. He ran in a very undignified manner, all the way upstairs and towards the grand doors where his daughter's room was...

He stopped outside the door, hearing something quietly humming inside.

"Get back," he barked at the guards, who instantly flattened themselves against the wall at the other end of the hall.

The king very slowly turned the large steel handle of the door and let it creak open as he peered into the room.

A large window had been opened, bathing a part of the room in moonlight. In the center of the elaborately painted rug towards the median of the room was Zelda's crib, and a figure crouched behind it, reaching inside.

That figure was humming a melody very quietly.

Harkinian stepped into the room as carefully as he could without letting his boots make a lot of noise on the stone floor. He stopped a few yards away from the crib to watch Impa singing to the tiny princess.

The melody was one they'd never heard before, very soft and comforting like a lullaby. In fact, Zelda seemed to have dubbed it a lullaby on her own. She was sleeping quite peacefully.

"Impa," the king said in an awed voice.

Impa gazed up at the king and gasped, her eyes showing a rising amount of fear. She didn't know for sure, but as the king and his guards stared back at her, she had a terrible feeling that breaking into the princess's bedroom was not an innocent thing to do... Would she be punished? And if not for breaking in, would she be punished for ignoring the screams of castle personnel looking for her?

She stood up immediately, backing away from the crib and looking like a child caught breaking into the cookie jar. "I'm sorry, your majesty... I'm very sorry..."

Harkinian watched her thoughtfully as she hurried, trembling, over to him. "I'm sorry I made everyone worry... I heard the baby crying and I wanted to help her feel better... I snuck out of the room and came here... I used to do the same thing for my baby sister, your majesty... I'm sorry I made everyone worry... I promise, I won't do it again!" Impa pleaded. "Please, don't be angry..."

"That song," the king whispered. "What's the name of it?"

Impa looked surprised. "I don't know... my mother used to sing my brother and sister to sleep with it. I guess I thought it would help the princess. She was crying and no one would help her..."

He smiled and nodded, not, to Impa's surprise, seeming angry.

Impa bowed her head in shame. "I'm very sorry, your majesty... I promise to stay in my room from now on, I really do..."

The king took a deep breath and sighed, staring down at the floor. It seemed that it was time to make a decision.

All of the events of the day, the Sheikah disappearing, the rescue of the lone girl from Kakariko, her own disappearance and her comforting of the princess had all come down to this moment. Harkinian had a very important decision to make. What to do with her?

He spoke, very softly. "That song is called Zelda's Lullaby. It's the song passed down through the Royal Family of Hyrule."

"It is?" Impa asked, looking a little surprised.

"The fact your mother knew it reassures me you come from a fine family of Sheikah, perhaps one that has served the Royal Family in the past," Harkinian went on. "I will ask one more time. You're sure you have no idea where your people have gone?"

She shook her head, remembering her promise to accept her loneliness. "No your majesty... I don't know."

"And you have nowhere to go, do you?" asked Harkinian.

"I could live back in Kakariko on my own, your majesty. I don't think I have enough Rupees to live for long... but I will go there if it is your will, your majesty..." Impa said humbly, kneeling down. "I'll do whatever you ask, your majesty!"

Harkinian shook his head. "If your people are truly gone for good, Lady Impa, it is the least I could do to comfort you and give you a place to stay..."

"I'm all right, your majesty... I really don't have any money... I could never afford to pay to live here at the palace."

"What is this nonsense of payment?" asked Harkinian. "I would be honored to have you as my guest."

"I could never live off of your kindness, your majesty..." Impa shook her head rapidly. But she could feel her resolve flickering.

Harkinian shook his head as well. "That's not what I mean... I am offering you a job here. You may stay in the castle as long as you like in exchange for your working here."

She finally gave in. "I will work hard, your majesty! I promise! I'll wash dishes or cook or do anything, just as long as I can stay..."

"I have a job in mind for you," Harkinian said, touching her on the shoulder. "The way you took care of the princess like that... I think that you would make a wonderful nanny and attendant."

The young Sheikah looked surprised. Her red eyes widened slowly. "The princess's nanny?"

Harkinian beamed. "You seem to be good with children. I promise, if you help me and take care of my daughter, I will help you and give you a place to stay until we find your people. You can come and go from the castle as you please, and you can have free roam of both the castle and the market... But your top priority would be to take care of Zelda."

Impa nodded quickly, leaping to her feet. "Yes, your majesty! I would be honored!"

"You're a very important girl, do you know that?" he asked warmly. "You are very important to us, as the last of your kind... May I ask you to sign the treaty on behalf of the Sheikah, when the time comes?"

"Yes, of course, your majesty!" Impa agreed. She hadn't thought about that.

Harkinian smiled beatifically and patted her on the shoulder. "You're a lovely young lady... I feel you'll be a great asset to the kingdom of Hyrule someday. Not as the last of the Sheikah, but as a person. I know you'll certainly be an asset here at the palace."

Impa hadn't even considered this. He really did see her for more than the last Sheikah- something that no one, all day had been able to do. "I'm honored, sir..."

"Guards, please show Lady Impa to a more suitable room than the infirmary. She will be staying with us for a while," Harkinian ordered.

They all saluted. "Yes, your majesty!"

One of the guards touched Impa's arm, but only a little. He seemed to be the tiniest bit afraid of her. "Lady Impa, if you'll please come with us..."

"You can start tomorrow," Harkinian told her as she swept a small bow and reluctantly went with the guards. Her eyes seemed to be stuck to the princess, asleep in her crib.

Harkinian let out a little sigh as Impa disappeared into the hallway with the pack of guards. Quietly meandering to the side of his daughter's crib, he smiled as he watched her sleeping peacefully.

"It is only natural you be soothed by that song, precious."

Zelda moved her tiny bald head only slightly and yawned.

The king gazed out of the window behind them, where the night was clear except for a few wispy clouds around the moon. The center of one wisp was broken out, and a solitary star was floating there triumphantly, having broken through the mist.

"Your new nanny is quite the little loner, Zelda," he said.

--------------------------------------------

A LITTLE LESS THAN TWO WEEKS LATER...

---------------------------------------------

The wind calmed, the dust settled, and the storm was finally dying down.

It had come on quickly from the west, roaring wind that lifted the sand effortlessly into its wake. If the burning sun above wasn't miserable enough, the sand and the wind were certainly strong enough to tear the flesh from the bone of anyone stupid enough to venture out into them. It was the summer, a particularly brutal season for sandstorms, and for three days the Gerudo had been forced to stay inside their fortress.

Finally, the sun was once again visible setting along the horizon, throwing a crimson glow across the valley and lighting up the surface of the sand. The "all-clear" signal came from the horns, and like ants from an anthill, the desert people ventured back out into the open to resume their duties.

The Gerudo Prince, soon to be king, leaned against the doorway leading out into the courtyard, watching as the guards once again took their positions around the fortress. His broad arms were crossed against his chest as his yellow eyes darted back and forth, taking in the sunset and the wispy clouds in the southern sky. His messy, thick red hair was slicked back against his head as best as he could get it to stay, but still stuck up stubbornly in a few parts along the back of his neck.

His head and neck were bespangled with various chains and head ornaments, as was custom of a young Gerudo lord. Miniature pieces of armor hung over his arms, and a loose strip of cloth wrapped several times around his waist served as a belt to hold up his ripped-up pants. Olive green skin and a broad, pronounced nose stood him out from the rest of his tribe.

"Young master, no more pouting," a woman's voice said from behind him, as a hand appeared on his shoulder. "We're heading to the castle town tomorrow whether you like it or not."

"I don't see why I have to go," he grumbled angrily. "What do they need me for?"

The Gerudo woman smiled warmly. "The king wishes to meet you, young master. It's been a long time since we Gerudo have had a king of our own. You'll be a member of the king's council when you grow up, you know."

"Mm. I'm so excited," Ganondorf snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm to be an unwanted member of a coward's council."

"Watch your mouth, young master!" the woman gasped. "We can't have that tongue of yours going off in front of the king!"

"What do I care?" he grumbled, shaking his head. His eyes stared off at the blood red sunset, and narrowed. "Harkinian has never cared for us... He never will. He only wants to meet me so he can size up the competition for the next hundred years."

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone knows it's true," Ganondorf replied. "I have nothing to say to Harkinian's people that would be of any use in establishing peace, Marya."

Marya leaned against the opposite wall of the doorway, and eyed her young nephew. She had expected that reaction. "Nabooru offered to go with you, if you like," she said quietly.

Ganondorf threw her a sideways glance. "That would be nice."

"I'll go tell her, then," she replied, turning back into the fortress. "Dinner will be ready in half an hour or so. Don't spend your whole evening out here pouting, you hear? There is plenty else to do besides sitting around feeling sorry for yourself."

"Yes, Auntie."

The bangles hanging from her lavender clothes always made a jangling noise as she walked. She jangled all the way inside and up the stairs, leaving Ganondorf to his thoughts.

Sighing angrily, he left the doorway and began to stroll across the sandy courtyard, towards the archery range. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at his feet, taking turns sinking down into the warm sand.

Perhaps Koume and Kotake could help him avoid having to go to the market tomorrow... They always had some sort of tricks up their sleeves. But it was a long hike out into the desert to the Gerudo sacred ground, and it was already nearly dark. He'd have to wait until tomorrow.

The young king finally sat down on the roof of one of the higher stone buildings, letting his feet hang off the edge and leaning back on his elbows to finish watching the sunset, hopefully undisturbed this time.

Ganondorf found he didn't have much taste for the Hylians after the atrocities he'd witnessed in the Great War. Hyrule had only recently put an end to the bloody battle, a gruesome crusade of the races warring against one another. While they'd never been terribly popular among the other races of Hyrule, the Gerudo had taken an even more unpleasant turn in the majority's opinion when it was found that they were in responsible for starting the terrible war.

This was only partially true. The Gerudo were the first race to mobilize their armies, the first race to openly attack the others and the first race to declare war. The Gerudo even knew the name of the woman among them who had, in effect, started the whole chain reaction in the first place.

Her name was Milana. She was not a terribly extraordinary Gerudo; she was an experienced thief like the rest of them, beautiful, but no more so than her sisters. There were only two things that set Milana especially apart from the rest of her tribe.

One was the manner of her death. Milana was arrested for robbing a duo of Hylian guardsmen and taken to Hyrule Castle Town, where she was placed on trial and sentenced to death by stoning. Her body was found, barely alive, floating down Zora's River just north of Gerudo Valley. She died later that very day of her extensive injuries.

The other was her title—the Golden Mother. Milana had given birth to this century's only male Gerudo, her son Ganondorf.

He'd been very young when it happened, but he could remember it well.

He remembered the blood, the buckets full of cool water and the cloths they'd laid on her forehead to comfort her in her final moments. He remembered holding her hand as she weakly pulled him close to her and whispered in his ear, tears running down her face. He remembered her smile, the last glint of light in her eyes, and the last words she spoke.

"Ganny," she whispered, "Precious, boy… be a good king."

Enraged at what they called the merciless killing, the brutal murder, the beginnings of genocide against the Gerudo, the thieves planned and carried out their attacks. It was ten years ago. Ten years ago, Ganondorf's mother passed away and the land was engulfed in war—a war that had only ended mere months ago.

Now, King Harkinian had sent out for what he called "a great unification" to take place. Leaders of all the tribes of Hyrule were called upon to come to the great palace at Hyrule Market and sign new treaties to ensure peace for many years to come.

Everyone was very excited about it. Every race in Hyrule was falling under new management, their old leaders dead or abdicated. Harkinian himself had only recently taken the throne from his father, who'd started the war and died in a great battle.

He'd heard from Gerudo scouts coming back from the castle town. The new leaders from all the races were to come to the castle for a week-long stay. The days would be marked by long, eventful meetings to decide the future treaties of the land, and the nights would be full of celebration, tributes to peace and brotherhood and unity.

Everybody seemed to be anticipating it, looking forward to wiping the slate clean and starting anew.

Everybody except for Ganondorf.

He spotted a lone star hanging up in the sky, appearing just beyond the great rusty cliff over his head. The rest seemed to be clustered at the center of the sky, with that one lonely one far off to the side.

He pitied it.

All this responsibility, all of this dumping down on his shoulders because he was different from everyone in his tribe... He was the lone star, the lone male Gerudo, the one predestined by thousands of years of tradition to be the king and exalted leader.

No one ever knew when it would happen. Every so often, usually every hundred years or so, one Gerudo would say to another, "Gee, seems like a long time since we've had a male baby."

"Let's go get a new king," the other would say.

He'd always found the courtship system of the Gerudo to be a bit amusing. Packs of females would ride off into the night like a pack of wild tigers, seeking out the poor male soul who happened to be wandering the field or a back alley of the castle town.

Nine months later, a new batch of Gerudo would be born, each a little different than the generation before it. So many Gerudo were of mixed blood anymore, it was hard to tell a few of them were of the race at all.

And then, as luck would have it, one female Gerudo would be "The Golden Mother", and have the supreme honor of delivering the new king, the only male Gerudo.

Each male Gerudo's birthday was carefully marked and celebrating heartily, with great banquets and feasts and the occasional raiding party. Sixteen years ago had seen Ganondorf's own birth and celebrations.

A random Hylian man was his father, leaving Ganondorf with bigger ears than normal and his interesting tone of skin. His mother had told him the story many times of how she and his father met.

"I saw him walking down the back alley. So I grabbed a big rock and you could say... it was love at first sight."

Of course, Ganondorf could never go _looking_ for his father. That was strictly forbidden, as was written in the Gerudo codes. He'd always wondered what kind of person his father was, and if he would be ashamed to say that he'd been the victim of a lonely Gerudo. He had no interest in seeking him out anyway.

But Ganondorf was considered special, even among the male Gerudo. His grandfather had been the last Gerudo King, making his mother full-blooded and refreshing the bloodline. When he grew up, he'd be expected not only to lead the Gerudo, but to bring about a new bloodline of his own. Strict rules were in place about who he could and could not "associate with".

Strict rules were in place about basically everything he did.

Ever since he was a child, Ganondorf could remember being treated differently. And it was about to get even worse. He was coming of age.

Soon, he'd be told that his days of exploring out into the desert with his cousin, Nabooru were over. Soon he'd be told that he'd be expected to lead the Gerudo army into battle, and he'd be expected not to die.

Soon, his visits to his great-great-great grandmothers, the witches Koume and Kotake would be to learn the art of sorcery, and not for a nice cup of tea or a chat. Soon, he'd be forced to forget all of those Hylian fairytales he'd read as a boy, about beautiful damsels in distress locked up in towers in need of rescue by a brave knight, not unlike himself.

And soon, one of his childhood playmates would come to him, expecting him to father her child.

Too soon for Ganondorf to want to think about, the carefree days of his youth would be flushed down Zora's River, landing beyond Lake Hylia and into the untouchable realm of the past.

Ganondorf knew that tomorrow, as he left the valley on the way to the castle, he'd be forsaking more than his solemn vow to never associate with the filthy Hylians who killed his mother. He'd be forsaking his freedom for the bonds of captivity.

And all because he was that lone star.


	2. Two: A Fateful Meeting

Never My Destiny  
A Ganondorf/Impa Romance  
by Galaxy Girl  
  
A/N: I wanted to mention this in case anybody didn't pick up on it last chapter... Ganondorf is Nabooru's cousin in this story. His aunt is her mother. Just thought I'd mention that... ^^; Oh, and at the request/suggestion/demand (^^) of FireFairy, I've tried a different method of spacing on this chapter... Well, see what you think. Let's GO!  
  
SUPPORT GISOA! (Ganondorf/Impa Shippers of America)  
A GG AND ZEL ASSOCIATION  
http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa  
  
  
CHAPTER TWO: A Fateful Meeting  
  
*************************  
  
"Why are you here so early, child?" cackled the old crone in red, taking a long drink of something smelly and steaming from a bottle.   
  
"Something urgent bothering you?" chimed in the crone in blue, pouring the contents of an identical bottle into a small china teacup and holding it out. "Want some tea?"   
  
"No thank you," Ganondorf mumbled, shaking his head. He was sitting in his great-great-great grandmothers' sitting room, in a wing of the sacred Gerudo temple in the Desert Colossus.   
  
Early that morning, the morning he was set to leave for Hyrule Castle, Ganondorf had snuck out of his bedroom and, with the aid of a lantern, found his way to the Colossus to see Koume and Kotake Twinrova, his ancient grandmothers and surrogate mothers.   
  
Very little was known about the past of the twins, but it was known that they were once powerful Gerudo sorceresses who married Ganondorf's great-great-great grandfather, fifth to the last male Gerudo. Back then, polygamy was legal in the Gerudo society. Through various spells and hexes the two had invented on their own, they'd managed to live on for almost 400 years, retaining the appearances of a pair of kindly old witches with buggy eyes and elaborate robes.  
  
They lived in the Spirit Temple out in the Colossus, and the rest of the Gerudo revered them as prophets and wise woman... Though it was long-forgotten which one of them was actually the mother of Ganondorf's grandfather.   
  
Koume, the Fire Sorceress, took another long sip of "tea". "Hee hee hee... anxious about visiting the castle, are you, child?"   
  
"You could tell?" he asked, shuffling around on the cushion that had been provided for him to sit on. The room was stuffy and smelled like incense. It was making Ganondorf a little sleepy.   
  
"We know everything, silly boy. We're your grandmothers," Kotake, the Ice Sorceress giggled.   
  
"It's your duty, you know... As the male Gerudo," Koume reminded him crisply.   
  
"Your grandfather and his grandfather before him had to go through with things they didn't like to do either," Kotake added, chortling. "Ho ho ho."  
  
"I just don't think it's fair..." he murmured in frustration, staring down at the floor. "Ever since I was a child... I've had to do things that took away my freedom, and that I didn't want to do."   
  
"Like what?" echoed Koume and Kotake together.   
  
"Remember a few years ago... The Festival of the Sun?"   
  
"What about it?" the twins echoed again.   
  
Ganondorf dug into the stone floor with the toe of his boot. "That girl asked me to dance... And I said yes. And we had a great time."  
  
"So?" Koume prodded.  
  
"What about it?" Kotake finished.   
  
Ganondorf turned a little bit crimson. "Her mother saw us and pulled her aside and yelled at her... After that she wouldn't speak to me."   
  
"And...?" the twins urged.   
  
"Her mother told her that if she were caught 'fraternizing' with me again, she would be severely beaten," Ganondorf mumbled in an annoyed tone.  
  
Koume and Kotake glanced at each other. "Well, of course. You're the only male Gerudo. The others must respect and revere you as a king, to prepare for when you will be our king someday," exclaimed the latter.   
  
"It's understandable that you'd not like it very much... but that's the way things are," the former nodded widely. "They've always been that way."  
  
"Well, if I'm someday to be king, then why can't I change them?" Ganondorf retorted.   
  
"Because there are some things that extend beyond the ruling power of a king, child," Kotake whispered mystically.   
  
"Traditions. Laws of the earth and sky. The will of a woman," chuckled Koume. "Hee hee hee..."   
  
"You'll understand, someday, child... Why things must be this way," Kotake said consolingly, waddling over and patting her grandson on the shoulder. "Ho ho ho..."   
  
"But that's just it!" Ganondorf snapped angrily, pushing her ancient hand off of him. "I DON'T understand why things must be this way! The other races in Hyrule can do whatever they want and see whomever they want and love whomever they want... I seem to be the only one who can't!"   
  
Kotake stepped back away from him, and Koume's eyes bugged out even more than usual, if possible.   
  
He stood up, and stomped to the center of the room. "If I'm a king, then why can't I change things? If I'm a king, then why can't I control my own future? If my own destiny is out of my hands, then just what kind of power do I have?"   
  
An awkward moment passed.   
  
Koume and Kotake looked at each other, and shook their heads sadly. Ganondorf was glaring back at them, prepared to leave if he didn't hear what it was he wanted to hear.   
  
"I wish we could tell you why that is, child..." Koume sighed.   
  
"We don't understand everything either..." Kotake sighed as well.   
  
"I'm not going to the castle," Ganondorf spat viciously, his voice growing more and more dangerous. "I'll never go. I'll die before I break the promise I made to my mother... And I'll die before I let them take away the rest of my life."   
  
"Perhaps... if you do go..." Koume mused in a quiet voice, "You'll find the answer to whatever it is you're looking for..."   
  
"I want a way out. I want to abdicate the Gerudo throne," Ganondorf said. "I'm supposed to be a king, not a god... They don't have to treat me like this!"   
  
Kotake nodded wisely. "Perhaps... if you do go... You'll find a way to do that."  
  
Ganondorf seemed to be thinking as he strolled back and forth across the room, the clicking of his boots the only sound. "And if I can't do that... Then I want more power."   
  
"More power?" echoed the twins.   
  
"Yes. More power," Ganondorf repeated, his yellow eyes glittering as though in a daydream. "I want the power to make things go my way... Live the way I want to, with whom I want to... I want the power to bring everyone together..."  
  
"Under one king," Koume and Kotake whispered eerily.   
That's what his mother had said...   
  
"Yes. That's the sort of power I want," Ganondorf nodded curtly.   
  
"Perhaps, if you go to the castle, you'll find the answer to that wish," Koume said.   
  
"And perhaps, if you go to the castle, you'll find something else that you want desperately," Kotake giggled, a hint of mischief in her voice.   
  
Ganondorf turned towards them, one eyebrow raised high up onto his forehead. "What are you saying...? If I go to the castle..."  
  
"Perhaps it's a prophecy. Perhaps it's not," Koume riddled.  
  
"Perhaps it's destiny. Perhaps it's not," Kotake added.   
  
"Perhaps it's the way things were planned. Perhaps it was never meant to be," Koume persisted.  
  
"Perhaps it's the answer to all your problems. Perhaps it's a curse," Kotake went on.   
  
"But either way, this way or that way," Koume announced climactically.  
  
"You'll never know unless you go and find out!" Kotake finished.   
  
Somehow, those cryptic bits of wisdom made Ganondorf reconsider his defiance in his decision to go with the rest of his tribe to the castle...   
  
He stood in thought for a moment, gazing back at his grandmothers, who were smiling mischievously as they sipped more tea from identical bottles.   
  
"Maybe it is my destiny," Ganondorf sighed, as he turned towards the door.   
  
"Good luck, child," Koume called, waving farewell.  
  
"Keep your chin up, child..." Kotake added. "Things just might work out the way you want them to..."   
  
  
*********************  
  
It seemed to Impa that the entire population of the castle town had gathered her in the square to watch the arrival of the races. It was as though all the violence and terror caused by the Great War had never happened. Mothers and fathers, children, entire families were out on the streets, feasting on delicacies and enjoying goods only available at carnival time. There was the happy chorus of laughter wherever you went, and all through the streets, young children marched, chanting old stories and songs to welcome the leaders of the races to the great capital of Hyrule.   
  
Impa was seated on the side of a fountain at the center of the square, leaning back and soaking up the rays of the sun. She watched the people enjoying the pleasures of the marketplace and the town guards moving things aside in preparation for the entrance of the leaders. Harkinian had graciously given her the day off, as a reward for serving so well in her first few weeks working at the castle.   
  
Every morning at 6, as Impa was used to doing, she awoke, got dressed, and immediately headed into the Princess's room to bathe, dress and feed her. From then until noon, she spent her time catering to Zelda's needs: play, diapering, and the occasional morsel of mush from the kitchen.   
  
Noon until three was Impa's scheduled break, as Zelda napped. Usually around three Zelda would awaken, and Impa would continue care until six o'clock, when she would put the princess to bed. The rest of the night was hers, unless, of course, Zelda needed something.   
  
Never since Zelda's birth had the castle been so quiet. Harkinian often had to stop in the nursery to make sure that Zelda and Impa were still there.   
But today, every precious second belonged to Impa to do as she pleased with. She'd never been to the marketplace during a carnival, and was quite pleased at all the things there were to see and do.   
  
Of course, that large shadow still hung over her. There had been no clues leading to the discovery of the Sheikah's disappearance. She was still the last one, and all alone.   
  
But Impa noticed that taking care of the princess seemed to comfort her. It was nice to know that she was needed for something in this world. And every time Impa thought about perhaps, trying to disappear as well, she would remember how lonely poor Zelda would be with no one to sing her to sleep.   
  
  
After an hour or so of enjoying the sunshine, Impa finally grew hungry, and set off to a booth in the corner with the few Rupees of spending money that the king had allowed her. Lon-Lon, the ranch in the center of the field, was having a special: a cheese pastry and a bottle of Lon-Lon milk for only 5 Rupees.   
  
The man running the cart, who appeared to be the ranch's owner, was holding a fussy baby girl with bright red hair. As he handed her her food, Impa couldn't help but make a suggestion.  
  
"I think you have her wrapped up too tight in that blanket," she smiled cheerfully.   
  
The ranch owner fumbled about with the blanket, and the girl immediately stopped fussing. As a reward, he handed Impa back her 5 Rupees, proclaiming that she deserved a free meal for her help.  
  
As Impa made her way back to her spot by the fountain, a loud trumpet cadence blasted through the square. Everyone turned towards the great drawbridge, and cheered wildly as the first of the wagons carrying the leaders of Hyrule entered the walls of the castle.   
  
Suddenly losing her appetite, Impa set down her meal and stood up. She'd never seen any of the other races, besides the Gorons and the Hylians... She stood up on her tiptoes to see over a very tall man standing nearly in front of her.   
  
The first wagon must have belonged to the Gorons, Impa mused, as it was built completely of stone- wheels and all. She was proven correct as she spotted a hairy, muscular Goron up front, peddling a small wheel between his feet and stuffing his face with chunks of marble as he did. That must be Darunia, the new Big Brother of the Gorons... Inside the wagon was an entourage of other Gorons, powering the wagon by rolling in place on what looked like a crude conveyor belt.   
  
Following closely behind the Gorons was a wagon that, to the delight of many of the children, was made completely of flowers and plants. Seated on it was a troupe of Deku Scrubs from the forest, and one Hylian, who had served as a diplomat to the Kokiri. Their leader, who was rumored to be a giant tree, had been unable to come, so Harkinian sent a representative to him instead.   
  
Impa's eyes nearly popped out of her head as the Zora came next. She'd never seen something so strange! What looked like a half-man, half-fish was pulling the cart, his silver scales gleaming in the sun. Many of the Hylians oohed and aahed to see that the cart was a small, shallow pool on wheels. Gathered inside was a rather large Zora (the king, no doubt), some normal-looking ones, and one that looked like a child, riding on the king's lap.   
  
But the wagon that came next, Impa found the most fascinating of all. It was built of shoddy wood, and led by a pair of handsome young stallions, one of them tan and one of them an ebony black. The wagon appeared normal, and it occupied by a group of tan-skinned women, all with bright red hair and wearing the outfits traditionally associated with genies or harem women, in all colors of the rainbow... But there were only women aboard. Not a single man was in sight.   
  
"The Gerudo! Who invited them?" a large woman in front of Impa gasped.   
  
"Everyone was invited, what did I tell you?" her husband, who was comically very skinny replied. "Look at that... Of all places... I've never seen a Gerudo in real life... I used to think they were made up. How could a tribe survive if only women were born?"   
  
"That don't make no sense!" a new person, standing in front of the skinny man snapped. "How can that be?"   
  
"Easy," A young woman next to the new man shrugged. "There are male Gerudo... But they're only born once every hundred years. And he's always the king. Always, always, always... they almost treat him like a god."   
  
"Lucky bastard," whispered the skinny man. His wife replied by slugging him in the shoulder and almost knocking him down.   
  
"So... if their king hasn't been born yet, why are they here?" asked the new man. "Who's gonna sign?"   
  
"Oh, they have a king. Real young. I heard he's only sixteen," the young woman announced. "I think they're crazy, letting a kid like that lead them..."   
  
"Lucky bastard... surrounded by all those women," the skinny man and the new man repeated together, eyes glazing over.   
  
Impa had never heard anything so strange in all her life. A tribe made up of only women... One man born every hundred years? How on earth did they ever survive?   
  
Everyone in the marketplace seemed to have heard about the Gerudo and their boy king, as well. An excited murmur swept across them as the Gerudo's cart reached the center of the square. People had begun climbing up on crates and planters to try and see into the wagon and have a good view of the Gerudo king.   
  
Who'd ever heard of a male Gerudo? It was quite a wonder to them, and they all hoped to catch a momentary view of who would become the leader of the notorious gang of thieves.   
  
Impa stood up on the fountain and headed to the right, hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of him through the front of the wagon. She could still hear tidbits of people's conversations as she walked, carefully keeping her balance.  
  
"I don't know why the king invited them... Bunch of no-good thieves, that's all they are."  
  
"I heard that packs of them hunt down Hylian men in the night!"  
  
"You're kidding! For what?"  
  
"What else? PROCREATION..."   
  
"EEEGGH!"   
  
Reaching the end of the wall of the fountain, Impa stood up on her tiptoes to try one more time to see him...   
  
And found herself successful, as an olive green hand protected by ornately decorated bracers reached out of the wagon and moved the cloth covering it aside to gaze out at the marketplace.   
  
An anxious-looking face appeared. He was indeed very young. His hair was wild and red like the rest of his tribe's and his skin that same olive green tone. He had sharp yellow eyes that seemed to bore into everything he looked at, and a broad, prominent nose.   
  
She had never seen anyone looking so uncomfortable before.   
  
But there was something about him... Even though she could only see a little bit of his face... There was something different about him.   
  
  
"See, young master? This isn't so bad," his aunt said cheerfully as she gently prodded the black stallion's side with a long riding crop. "Look at all the sights... Just listen to all the sounds! Yes, your mother and I scored some of our best raids here!"   
  
"Why are they all trying to stare at me?" Ganondorf mumbled nervously, trying to watch the crowd through a rip in the fabric.   
  
"I already told you, young master... A male Gerudo is something to be marveled at," Marya replied, sending hand signals to two of the guards in the back. She had ordered them to keep their eyes on the back of the wagon to watch for "sightseers" trying to sneak onboard.   
  
A cheerful young Gerudo in pink was seated next to Ganondorf, leaning back against the cloth of the wagon. "Just ignore them, Ganny," Nabooru yawned, stretching. "They'll get over it..."   
  
"Well I wish they'd stop soon," Ganondorf snapped. "I already feel like a freak. And they're not helping..."   
  
What on earth were Koume and Kotake THINKING, telling him to come here? He wouldn't find the slightest shred of anything helpful here in his quest for freedom. All he'd seen so far were nosy, stupid Hylians who insisted on treating him like he was riding in a circus wagon instead of the royal coach of the Gerudo.   
  
Ahead of them, the great castle of Hyrule rose up above the tiny buildings in the marketplace like a great mountain of marble. Even Ganondorf had to admit, it was pretty spectacular.   
  
Perhaps when he was king, he would build a palace like that. Maybe he could invite people to live there with him, too, like the King of Hyrule did. And no Gerudo law, no matter how old or traditional would stop him.   
  
For some reason, Ganondorf felt himself compelled to search the crowd. He didn't know why, or what he was expecting to find. Another male Gerudo? Not likely. Maybe he was looking for someone in the same situation as him...   
  
His vision melted into a blur of Hylians. They all looked very different from one another, unlike the Gerudo, who all shared the trait of red hair. A rainbow of hair and skin colors, styles of clothing and sizes was scattered across the marketplace, in the forms of the Hylian people. And they all had those big, pointy, ridiculous-looking ears that Ganondorf had come to recognize and hate. One of these people... One of these varying people was responsible for his mother's death. No matter how innocent or happy they look, it's their fault...  
  
The wagons briefly came to a stop while the guards opened the gates to the castle up ahead. Ganondorf continued spying out of the wagon, still looking all over the crowds.   
  
"They all look so different," he murmured blankly.   
  
"That's what happens when your gene pool is 20 times bigger than ours," one Gerudo in the back chuckled, shaking her head.   
  
"It's ridiculous... How can you even tell who your family is, if you all look so different?" another one replied.   
  
"I don't know about you all, but I feel blessed to have red hair," Nabooru laughed. "At least I know who I belong with, eh Ganny?"   
  
Ganondorf didn't pay attention until she had slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Huh? Oh... yeah... Right."   
  
"I mean... goodness! Look how confusing it'd get!" Nabooru whistled, gazing out the back of the wagon. "That girl there has yellow hair... So who is her family? Is that guy over there part of her family? He has yellow hair too... But she's standing near that guy with black hair. Is he her family? But how can that be? Yellow hair should stick with yellow hair, y'know?"  
  
"You're not making much sense, dear," Marya called back to her daughter.  
  
"It makes sense!" Nabooru called back. "Like I said, I'm glad I have red hair... It makes it easy to know who you belong with."  
  
"I don't know," Ganondorf sighed.  
  
"What do you mean?" his cousin replied.   
  
"Well... I have red hair, don't I?"   
  
"Yeah...?"  
  
"Sometimes I don't know who I belong with," he mumbled forlornly, staring through a rip in the fabric.  
  
Nabooru studied his face for a moment, and chuckled a little. "Don't be silly, Ganny. You belong with us."  
  
"I don't feel like it sometimes," he shrugged. "Aren't all Gerudos female, after all?"  
  
His cousin cocked her head, and sighed. "This AGAIN, cousin?"  
  
"It's true, though. All the Gerudo ARE female," he argued.   
  
Nabooru patted him on the shoulder. "But one of them is not. And it's you, Ganny. You're the king, remember?"  
  
"Well then, when I'm king... Red hair won't have to stick with red hair," he said calmly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Red hair can marry yellow hair or black hair if he or she wants to."  
  
Nabooru shook her head in disbelief. "You're crazy, Ganny."   
  
"Maybe I am," he shrugged, as the wagon started to move again.   
  
All the better, he thought. The sooner we get to the castle, the better.  
  
Ganondorf was beginning to get sick of the Hylians. They all looked different from each other... But none of them really stood out. They were all just faces in the Hylian crowd, just another mindless member of the-   
That's when his eyes turned towards the fountain.  
  
  
She was standing on the wall of a fountain in Town Square. Ganondorf caught one look at her and slowly poked his head out of the front of the wagon to get a better look.  
  
There were no other people who looked like her... What a strange-looking Hylian! Silvery white hair with tattoos below her red eyes, and body armor unlike any he'd ever seen the Hylian Guards wearing.   
  
She was watching him with a curious glance, even as he tried to keep himself hidden from view. Her eyes were glittering with interest as she followed the Gerudo's wagon, slowly heading out of the marketplace and onto the castle ground.   
  
What's she lookin' at? - Ganondorf thought smugly. She's as much of a freak as I am...   
  
But his curiosity was getting the better of him. He couldn't keep his eyes off of that weird Hylian girl. Finally, he tapped his aunt on the shoulder and pointed at her.  
  
"Who does she belong with?" he asked.   
  
Marya strained her eyes to get a good look at her. "Who? The girl on the fountain?"  
  
"She doesn't look like the other Hylians," Ganondorf repeated. "None of them have silver hair... Who does she belong with?"   
  
Marya studied the girl's appearance for a moment, then leaned back to talk to her nephew. "Looks like a Sheikah, I think. Wow, who'd have thought?"   
"What's that?" Ganondorf murmured. "A... Sheikah?"  
  
"No one knows for sure... They're the Shadow Folk. They have watched over the Royal Family of Hyrule for centuries, and they used to live in a village called Kakariko, near the mountains," Marya explained. "But it's the weirdest thing... they all started disappearing a few weeks ago. I didn't think there were any left... But then again, in his proclamation about the treaty, ol' Harky did mention the last Sheikah signing..."  
  
"She's the last one?" asked Ganondorf.   
  
"Looks that way," Marya sighed. "Jeez, what's the holdup up there?! COME ON, YOU STUPID ZORA! PARK THE DAMN WAGON AND LET'S GO!"   
  
Finally Marya spurred on the horses again, and the wagon was moving. But Ganondorf didn't let his eyes leave the lonely Sheikah girl standing by herself in the market...   
  
The very last Sheikah, her family vanished into thin air...  
She's different from everyone else... And she's all alone...   
  
  
Impa kept her eyes on the Gerudo wagon until it had disappeared up the path to the castle gates. She hopped down from the fountain and began pushing through people, headed for a back-alley shortcut she knew that led back to the castle.   
  
The only male Gerudo in a tribe of females...  
  
He's different from everyone else... And he's all alone...  
  
  
  
"Friends and allies, leaders of the races of Hyrule!" Harkinian bellowed, sweeping a long bow to everyone crammed into the wide Great Hall. "I bid you welcome to these sacred halls!"   
  
There was a thunderous outburst of cheering from the hundreds of people lining the red carpet strewn across the floor. It was reminiscent of the bloodshed of the Great War, all-too-fresh in the people's memories.   
  
So many had died for such a useless cause... And now, they gathered to pay homage to them by ensuring that it would never happen again.   
  
Things were looking bright.   
  
Ganondorf found himself surrounded by a group of Gerudo, pocketing him in a circle of shelter from the Hylians who kept trying to get closer to him. He could hardly see a thing, and it was starting to irritate him.   
  
"Too long have our peoples been separated by the cold darkness of death and destruction. War has torn us apart, made us bitter over our differences, and made us forget what it is that makes us the same; Our love for this beautiful land we live in," Harkinian continued. "Our fathers before us could not bring peace to this land. But the future is now in our hands, and we hold the power to preserve Hyrule long into the future, forever in serenity and freedom."   
  
"Aunt Marya, I can't see!" Ganondorf snapped, trying to shove aside a few of the Gerudo to get out front.   
  
"There's nothing to see yet," his aunt hissed. "Keep quiet and wait. They'll call you forward in a few minutes."   
  
"For the first time ever, our peoples will be united in the name of Hyrule. From the high peaks of Death Mountain to the waters of Lake Hylia... From the steamy sands of Gerudo Valley to the deepest forests of Kokiri, unity will tie us together and make us strong for the future," the king cried out.  
  
More thunderous applause from all races echoed across the hall.   
  
Ganondorf was disgusted at what he was hearing. He hadn't even caught a glimpse of Harkinian yet, but his words left a bad taste in his mouth.   
  
How could this man talk about peace when it was his people who mercilessly executed a young Gerudo mother? He was a hypocrite of the worst sort.   
  
Perhaps Harkinian hadn't had say in what his people did, Ganondorf briefly thought. But what sort of king doesn't have power over his own people? He was a useless bystander who sat on his throne of gold, helpless to control the actions of the people he was supposed to lead.   
  
From deep within his chest, Ganondorf felt a twinge of utter loathing.  
"Now, I ask of you, friends and brothers... Leaders of this new age, will you please step forward and let us know you?" the king pursued. "Let us all meet these new kings, who hold tomorrow at their fingertips."   
  
A group of guards took their places at the huge wooden door at the far end of the room and lifted their spears in salute.   
  
  
Impa was standing directly behind Harkinian, carefully guarding the sleeping princess in the cradle next to his throne. She watched with bated breath as the flags of the 6 races were unfurled on the walls, awaiting the entrance of the leaders.   
  
The echoes of drums sounded through the hall, and an entourage of Gorons with percussion instruments of all sizes waddled in, hooting and singing.   
  
Behind them walked the young muscular Goron that Impa had seen in the market. He was larger than the others, with a great beard on his chin and wild hair that stuck up like the peaks of the mountains he came from. He walked proudly along the red carpet, drawing awed stairs from the people lining it. He stopped in front of the throne and bowed proudly.   
  
"Brother Harkinian," he announced, "I am Big Brother Darunia of the Gorons, taking my place in light of my father's passing in the last great battle of Death Mountain."   
  
"I am honored to meet-" Harkinian had begun to say, but he was interrupted as Darunia swept him up in a great Goron hug, slapping him on the back hard enough to dislodge a few ribs.   
  
"The honor is mine, Brother Harkinian! From this day forward, you are my Sworn Brother, and the Gorons and the Hylians will live peacefully beside each other!" Darunia howled spiritedly. He let out a warm chuckle, and released the flustered king, who looked about ready to call in his bodyguards.   
  
Harkinian brushed the wrinkles out of his robe as best he could, and laughed as well. Darunia stepped to the side to greet the other leaders, and his entourage spread out into the crowd.   
  
  
A chorus of whalebone guitars strumming the song of the Zora tribe entered next, followed by their rather large King Zora, pulled on a cart by some others.   
The tiny princess, named Ruto, was seated on his lap, blinking curiously at all the people watching her father's approach.   
  
King Zora bowed as best he could to Harkinian. "On behalf of the Zora, we extend the fins of peace to you and all your allies, your majesty."   
  
"It is an honor to receive you, King Zora," Harkinian said nobly, nodding a greeting.   
  
  
And so it continued. The races stepped forward and their leaders greeted the king, while the visitors who lined the Great Hall struggled to get a look at them.   
  
At last, only two races remained.  
  
King Harkinian cleared his throat, and waited for silence.   
  
"As you all have heard by now... One of our beloved allies could not be here today. I can't explain why, and I believe that the only ones who can are the great goddesses... But the Sheikah seem to have taken their leave from this kingdom, leaving but one of them to sign our treaty of brotherhood today."   
  
There was an excited chorus of murmurs across the hall, as Harkinian once again called for silence.  
  
"I present to you today, Lady Impa of Kakariko."   
  
Impa turned a brilliant shade of red as the audience clapped quietly. She couldn't help but notice how sparse the applause was... Most people didn't seem to know what to think about her.   
  
She stepped forward and nodded quickly, jumping back to take her place beside Zelda again before anyone could say anything to her. Her efforts proved unsuccessful, however, as she felt a large smack on her back. Impa gasped and did a half-spin to see Darunia there, smiling warmly.   
  
"How ya doin', kid?" he whispered. "The others told me about you..."  
"Y-yes, sir." Impa mumbled.   
  
"If there's anything you ever need, come on up to the city and ask me," he said with a wink, drawing Impa's lips up into a small smile.   
  
Perhaps she wasn't all alone...   
  
  
"And now, last, but certainly not least, I call forward the leader of the esteemed Gerudo, whoever she may be," Harkinian called out.   
  
The audience immediately fell silent, a mixture of shock and awkwardness. Half of them had never even seen a Gerudo, and the other half lived in mortal fear of them. Indeed, their presence here at this conference for peace had been a surprise... Wasn't it the Gerudo who had started the terrible war they were now here to absolve?   
  
After all, it was their fault that they lived under a system of values completely opposite from that of the Hylians...   
  
Harkinian eyed the section of the audience where the Gerudo women were standing, waiting for one of them to step forward.   
  
That's when their circle opened up, and someone hissed, "GO!"  
An awkward teenage Gerudo boy stumbled out onto the red carpet, nearly falling over.   
The audience let out a collective gasp. Even Harkinian was startled.   
A MALE GERUDO!   
  
But that had been just a rumor! All Gerudo were female, right?   
  
Even Harkinian hadn't believed what they'd told him... Yes, he'd invited them on the grounds that he wanted to "meet their new king"... But an actual male Gerudo? Impossible!  
  
For the first time since anyone had been alive, the Gerudo had a king... Unbelievable! But look! It was true!  
  
Impa's eyes widened as she saw him clearly for the first time. He came stomping up the red carpet, looking ready to kill the first person who asked him if he was really a male Gerudo. A cape that appeared a little too large for him fluttered behind him, and jangling chains and head ornaments decorated his otherwise simple clothing.   
Not a single pair of eyes left him as he made his way up to where the king stood.   
  
  
Ganondorf scowled miserably, wishing that all these people would just disappear. He could feel the sting of people's glances on him. Was he really THAT strange?   
  
He finally reached the front of the room, where Harkinian and the other leaders seemed to be studying him, lost for an answer.   
  
Standing awkwardly for a moment, Ganondorf felt shame trickling into his heart as he realized what he was supposed to do next. Kneeling shakily, he lowered his head in a half-hearted bow.   
"Your... majesty," he mumbled.   
  
"G-greetings and welcome," Harkinian stuttered. It was difficult for him to address this boy as an equal. "What is your name, my friend?"   
  
He spoke in a voice with just a detectable bit of loathing. "I am Ganondorf Dragmire of the Gerudo."  
  
"Thank you for coming, Lord Ganondorf," Harkinian sighed, relieved for some reason. "I bid you welcome into Hyrule Castle, and I hope that with a new king in both our kingdoms, our bids for peace will finally come through."  
  
Ganondorf rose quickly, hurrying over to stand near King Zora. He kept his eyes low to the ground, too ashamed to see what people's expressions towards him were.   
  
"People of Hyrule... I give you, those who will lead us into a new era, one hopefully blessed with peace and prosperity!"   
Thunderous applause broke out across the audience, though a few people seemed confused on just who it was they should be clapping for.   
  
"And now, the dignitaries and I will proceed to the throne room for deliberation on the new treaties. We will meet again in two days, to announce to the world what we have decided. I hope you all enjoy yourselves, and take your time to see and experience the marketplace and the rest of the great city. To Hyrule!" Harkinian announced.  
"To Hyrule!" the audience and dignitaries echoed.   
  
Ganondorf watched out of the corner of his eye as his aunt and his tribe was ushered out of the door of the Great Hall. He couldn't help but be suspicious about the way the guards seemed to be watching them... Nabooru threw him a thumbs-up sign and a pleasant wink.   
It was too late to turn back now.  
  
  
He followed the great bulk of the Goron King through a small door to the right of the podium, and into a narrow hallway leading to the throne room. Ganondorf felt extremely uncomfortable with the other leaders watching him, pointing and whispering to each other.   
  
Darunia's great girth blocked his view of exactly where in the castle they were going, but he dared not speak up. The last thing he needed was for the other races to dislike him any more than they probably already did.   
  
From behind him he heard the wheels of King Zora's cart clicking down the stone hallway, and other than that it was silent. Everybody seemed to be pretty tense. The warm, festive mood of the great hall was gone, and now the tensions of the war and the suspicions of the enemy returned.   
  
Ganondorf was ready to scream just to break the awkward silence, when he felt someone poking his shoulder.   
He slowed down a little bit and turned around, a glare that could sour milk plastered on his face. "What?" he snapped.  
  
His look softened when he saw the Sheikah girl from the marketplace standing there, looking stunned.   
  
"Sorry..." he mumbled quickly. "I just don't feel real well right now."  
  
"That makes two of us," she sighed, a small smile still on her face. "How old are you?"   
  
Ganondorf was prepared for the question he knew was coming. "Sixteen," he groaned.  
  
"Hey, me too," she giggled. "I don't feel so weird anymore... I thought it would be just me and a bunch of adults."   
  
"Ditto," Ganondorf replied. He felt a tiny spark of relief to learn that he wasn't the only teenage ruler... Apparently, a young monarch ruled the Sheikah as well.   
  
He and the girl were quiet for a moment as they continued down the long hallway.   
  
Finally, she let out a small sigh. "This castle gets bigger and bigger every day... I've been living here three weeks, and I don't think I've seen even half of it."   
  
"You live here?" Ganondorf murmured.   
  
"I do now," she shrugged. "It's kind of cool... I like living in such a big place."  
  
"When I'm king, I want a palace like this one," Ganondorf mused, stepping aside so his new acquaintance could come up beside him. She did so.   
Ganondorf couldn't help but notice her eyes... He couldn't see them before, from the cart. They were blood red, a very deep shade of it. They were sort of cool... All the Gerudo had yellow eyes.   
  
"I like your eyes," Ganondorf stated.   
  
She threw him an odd look.   
  
"I mean... they're a nice color. Red. I like red."  
  
"Okay..." she giggled. "Well... I like... your skin."   
  
He turned pink. "Really?"   
  
"It's a nice color. Green. I like green."  
  
"It's not green, it's OLIVE-TAN," he spouted, pretending to be angry.   
  
"Oh. Well, then I like olive-tan," she laughed, extending a hand. "I'm Impa."   
  
"Ganondorf," he replied, shaking it. "Nice to meetcha."   
  
"So what brings you here, Ganondorf?" Impa asked curiously, leaning over to try and see past Darunia. It appeared that they were finally getting closer...   
  
Ganondorf raised his eyebrows. "... The treaty."   
  
"Oh right... you're the king, aren't you?"   
  
He eyed her suspiciously. "So what?"   
  
"I've never heard of a boy king before," Impa replied. "It's sort of neat."   
  
"You think so?" Ganondorf responded sounding a little surprised.  
  
"Yeah. I wish we Sheikah had some sort of neat quirk like that... We're just sort of normal, I guess."   
  
So she didn't think he was strange? Maybe...   
  
"Well... you wouldn't think it was so neat if you were the only one of your kind," Ganondorf replied, thrusting his hands in his pockets and staring at the floor. They were rapidly approaching the throne room.   
  
"You're the only male Gerudo, huh?" Impa queried. "I think that's sort of neat, too..."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Ganondorf gaped.   
  
"No. Think about it... You really are one in a million," Impa smiled cheerfully.   
  
She DIDN'T think he was strange!  
  
"In fact, I think it's..." Impa had begun, when suddenly- "Whoops... better shut up now. Time for boring talk."   
  
They were being ushered through the door of the throne room, where it was eerily quiet in preparation for the long hours of deliberation ahead of them.   
  
"Wait..." Ganondorf stammered, stopping Impa from heading to her seat next to Harkinian's throne at the head of a long table.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Can we talk again later?" he mumbled nervously. Judging from his past experiences... they couldn't.  
  
Impa paused. "I don't see why not..."   
  
He let out a big sigh of relief. "Right, right... Okay. See ya," Ganondorf said, with as much cheer as he'd felt the last three days. "I mean... talk to you later."   
  
Impa nodded and gave a small wave with her little finger before scampering off to her seat.  
  
Ganondorf sunk into the chair under the Gerudo flag, unusually happy.  
  
Maybe this conference wasn't going to be so bad after all...   
  
  
**********************  
  
That seems like a good place to end it... OKAY. Now our happy couple has finally met... How will I do when the actual ROMANCE comes around?! Next chapter, the treaty is signed, and the festivities start! INCLUDING THE DANCING! WAAGH! OO; The fateful tale of Ganondorf and Impa continues in the next chapter of "Never My Destiny", so stay tuned! 


	3. Three and Four: Forbidden Feelings and Z...

Never My Destiny  
  
A Ganondorf/Impa Romance  
  
by Galaxy Girl  
  
A/N: Okay... I like that spacing. So it goes into effect! Yahoo! Wowee, thanks for all the great feedback, everyone! I'm really happy that you all (well... most of you) like the world's first serious G/I romance... Well, not really a romance yet... BUT THAT ALL HAPPENS THIS CHAPTER! This chapter is a little long, since it rounds out the rest of the pre-OoT storyline, and a little bit DURING the OoT storyline. Ahem... okay. Let's GO!   
  
SUPPORT GISOA! (Ganondorf/Impa Shippers of America)  
  
A GG AND ZEL ASSOCIATION  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa  
  
CHAPTER THREE: Forbidden Feelings (A/N: JEEZ, could the titles get any more cliché?)  
  
*************************  
  
Both days of meetings seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye to Ganondorf, who was feeling immensely relieved having found a friend. Perhaps it was the fact that she was somewhat in the same situation he was, or the fact that he had been desperately looking for someone- ANYONE who was his same age. But whatever the reason, he felt that he and Impa had some kind of connection that he'd never had with anyone else before.   
  
He felt a bit silly, though following Impa around constantly for the whole first day of talks. He wondered if perhaps she thought him irritating. Apparently not, though... She seemed just as relieved to have found someone to talk to.   
  
As Ganondorf laid back in his bed on the second night, staring out the window at the sky above, he found it a bit strange that two stars seemed to be circling around each other, just in his field of view.   
  
Maybe that lone star he'd seen a few nights ago had finally found a friend.  
  
He couldn't sleep. He'd been lying here in the same position for at least an hour... He was too nervous to sleep. Added with a bit of homesickness, and a little bit of loneliness as he missed his aunt and cousin, and the young Gerudo had been hit with a full-out case of insomnia.  
  
Ganondorf wondered if it was normal to think about someone as much as he did. He couldn't seem to stop thinking about Impa. How kind she'd been when they were in the meetings... Jumping into the middle of an argument between he and Darunia. Perhaps she was just diplomatic by nature.   
  
She even tried to stop him before he...   
  
If only he'd listened to her.   
  
Ganondorf knew that he'd messed up badly. He just couldn't hold in his temper any longer. The boredom, the frustration, the want to get the meeting over with, and the want to talk to Impa had just exploded.   
  
He'd almost ruined the entire treaty.   
  
The celebratory ball was dancing on down in the grand ballroom, and everyone else in the castle was there. Ganondorf figured it would have been a terrible faux pas for him to show up. He knew that none of the other dignitaries were really wanting to talk to him.   
  
Part of him, though, wondered if Impa was there. Maybe she was off in a corner by herself, alone.   
  
Maybe she was waiting for him to come.   
  
But... the others...   
  
Any minute now, Ganondorf was sure that Harkinian would be here to talk to him about his behavior at the meeting today. He was NOT looking forward to that.   
  
Perhaps he should head down to the ball... It would give him an excuse to avoid talking to Harkinian.   
  
He stared out the window again, at those two stars that seemed to have gone closer together within the last week.   
  
If he did find Impa... would she even want to talk to him after today?   
  
They'd broken for the first day at dusk, returning to the Great Hall for a grand feast in celebration. The echoing stone halls had been decked in the flags of every race- The tulip-like Goron symbol, omnipresent in their tattoos; the Zora's three-edged clover, the Gerudo's crescent and star, and the intricate red eye of the Sheikah; the "swoosh" of the Kokiri and Deku. The dining hall had been lined by hundreds of servants, standing in line like a pack of tin soldiers.   
  
Even the table was grand in size and elaborate in decoration. It extended nearly the full length of the room, with at least fifty chairs lining it. An intricately woven tablecloth covered it entirely, and Ganondorf mused about what a chore it would be to fold it up.   
  
The servants massed around the table in a flock, taking orders and carrying in dish after dish, piled high with piping hot food. They circled, filling up empty wineglasses faster than anyone could drink from them and replacing soiled napkins.   
  
With all the servants around, he felt too uneasy to eat much, worried that as soon as he began the next course would come around and he'd be caught in a faux pas. He found himself mostly drinking a strangely brewed sort of tea, and becoming frustrated that the glass seemed bottomless with all the servants around.   
  
Ganondorf felt he preferred the simpler, but much rowdier dinners at home in the valley.  
  
In Gerudo Valley, when meals were served, they'd all gather in the dining room, a larger room in the center of the fortress decorated by miscellaneous stolen flatware and china. Though the food was usually scarce to feed so many hungry women, no one ever complained about the quality.   
  
Gerudo dishes were spicy and hearty, and always prepared with the very best in stolen food. Long ago, his mother had told him that stolen food tasted twice as good as food that had been paid for. "You can taste the work that went into it," she'd say, laughing.   
  
Here (Ganondorf didn't want to say anything, but he definitely noticed that it was the truth) the food tasted like it had been prepared in great quantities to feed many people. If it had been just him and the king, he guessed that it would have been much better.   
  
But then again, Ganondorf would never agree to meet with the king by himself.  
  
They were in between courses. He had begun to fold his napkin with a blank look, drifting into boredom as he listening to King Zora droning on about scale disease to one of his entourage nearby.   
  
None of the other Gerudo had been invited to come. It was as though the king wanted the Gerudo to be represented, but not by more people than were necessary.  
  
The napkin became a bird. He crumpled it up and it became a fish. Next it took on an amusing caricature of the Deku representative, who was giving a spirited speech on an encounter he had with a Wolfos down at the other end of the table.  
  
Suddenly, a hand reached over his shoulder and snatched the napkin away from him. He froze as a large platter of bread was set down in the center of the table.   
  
"Hylian Sweet Bread, your graces," the servant said, replacing a stack of napkins next to the platter and sweeping a bow.   
  
"Oh, one of my favorites!" chuckled King Zora pleasantly. "The food here is marvelous! Wouldn't you agree, Lord... what's your name again, sir?"   
  
Ganondorf snapped to attention and pulled his hand back from where it had been trying to grab another napkin. "Huh? Oh... yes. It's Ganondorf."   
  
"It's a pleasure to finally have a Gerudo king to negotiate with, my friend," King Zora blubbered as one of his entourage filled his plate with bread. "I am hoping we can come up with some new property rights in the river."   
  
"Oh... yes, sir," Ganondorf answered uneasily.   
  
"You know how it gets, I'm sure... Whose fish are they, when we catch them in a certain part? Ho ho ho ho," he went on.  
  
"Uh... yeah," Ganondorf stammered, looking around anxiously for someone to change the subject with.   
  
"You've eaten very little, I couldn't help but notice. Do you perhaps not feel well?" King Zora questioned.   
  
"No, sir."   
  
"No as in yes, or no as in no?"   
  
Ganondorf blinked in confusion. "Excuse me, sir?"   
  
"You do feel ill?"   
  
"No, sir!" Ganondorf said quickly. "I'm sorry..."  
  
"No need to apologize, Lord Ganondorf!" King Zora chuckled. "You just seemed a little uneasy, that's all!"   
  
Ganondorf wasn't hungry anymore. His napkin sat on his plate, currently folded into the shape of a large Gerudo-style sword. He was staring at Harkinian, at the head of the table about seven chairs away.  
  
The king was having a conversation with the man who'd served as the Kokiri's representative. He was smiling pleasantly and nodding.   
  
He didn't look like the type of person responsible for the death of an innocent woman.   
  
Don't let that smile fool you, Ganondorf told himself over and over again in his head. He could feel the fury rising inside of him as he watched Harkinian talk. You know it's his fault... You know she's dead because of him.   
  
He could visualize his mother, soaked in her own blood, dying there on the cot. He could imagine how she'd screamed when the rocks began flying... The hooting jeers of the crowd as she'd been pummeled down. The cruel smile on the face of the guard who'd brought her in as she was flung into the moat, a cloudy shape staining the water around her limp form. And the naïve face of Harkinian, unaware that any of this was going on in his kingdom, caused by his people... Even if he hadn't been the king when it happened, he'd taken over now... And Ganondorf hated all Hylians, and especially their leader, no matter who he was.  
  
Gerudo-hating bastards.   
  
He didn't know how he would exert his revenge. But he wanted to, desperately. At first he'd decided just to have nothing to do with his mother's killers. But now that he was here... He could feel his hatred growing. He wanted to see them suffer like she did. But just how to do that...?   
  
"Lord Ganondorf?"   
  
He snapped out of his violent daydream, looking around quickly. King Harkinian was smiling at him. "Are you enjoying the meal so far?"  
  
"Y-yes," he said shortly.   
  
"Happy to hear it. It's been so long since we've been able to welcome your people to the castle. It's nice to have everyone here again," he commented.   
  
"Y-yes," Ganondorf said again.   
  
"So... formalities should be saved for negotiations. Let us talk like friends now," Harkinian smiled again. "Tell me a little more about your people... I find your ruling system fascinating. How does it work?"   
  
Great Din! Could he get any more irritating? Ganondorf thought. It's not enough that Ganondorf already hated Hylians. Now their leader, the one that he hated most of all had to be asking him about the other thing that he couldn't stand- being the only male Gerudo.   
  
Keep your cool, he kept telling himself silently. Don't get upset...   
  
"Well... um..." he stuttered. "We're all female... Except the one, um, male... born every hundred years."   
  
Ganondorf was turning as red as his hair. It didn't help that other people at the table had stopped their own private conversations to listen in, and now nearly everyone was watching him again.   
  
"Every hundred years? That's what I'd heard... How do you survive up to that point?" Harkinian asked. "Does the male often live that long?"   
  
Ganondorf stared at him suspiciously, telling himself to ignore the others watching him. "The women, they... um... Go out into the cities and..."   
  
Several of the dignitaries looked back and forth from one another disapprovingly. Harkinian's eyes widened, as though that wasn't the answer he expected.   
  
"Oh! Well..." he murmured uncomfortably. "Yes... I'd heard about that too. Tell me, Lord Ganondorf... your father... A Gerudo?"   
  
This conversation was quickly heading even further into hell, Ganondorf thought. Another thing he didn't like to discuss. He was technically half Hylian. He hated Hylians. He hated half of himself.  
  
"A Hylian," Ganondorf mumbled.   
  
"That's wonderful!" Harkinian beamed. "Another bridge to join our people!"   
  
Ganondorf felt like he was going to vomit.   
  
"Perhaps I know your father. What's his name?"   
  
"I don't know," he grumbled. "I'm not supposed to know."   
  
The king picked up on Ganondorf's disdain, and changed the subject. "I see. Well... Your mother, then. Gerudo?"   
  
"Yes," Ganondorf said quickly. He could feel bile rising into his throat. It was honestly making him sick. How DARE he bring up his mother?  
  
"Is she the woman who was with you today?" asked the king. "Pleasant woman... Very beautiful."   
  
"That was my aunt," Ganondorf stated. "My mother is dead."  
  
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that..." Harkinian stated, nodding. "I'm sure she was a very noble woman."   
  
"She was killed," he went on, before he could stop himself.   
  
Harkinian's eyes widened. "Good heavens... In the war?"  
  
"Before the war," Ganondorf went on, silently cursing his lack of control. "She was stoned to death."   
  
"Oh my!" the king sighed.   
  
"By Hylians," Ganondorf snorted.   
  
The hall fell silent.   
  
He knew before he had even finished that he had said something very, very wrong.   
  
Everybody was staring at him in disbelief now. But one person in particular caught his eye.  
  
Impa was leaning over the table from the chair immediately to the king's right, staring at Ganondorf with wide, shocked eyes.   
  
Good, Ganondorf thought haughtily. I'm glad he's surprised.   
  
Harkinian's eyes were very wide. What impudence!  
  
He didn't show any remorse as he smiled at the king and held out his hand. "Your majesty, could you please pass a piece of bread?"   
  
Other dignitaries seemed to have adopted a cool attitude towards Ganondorf the next day during the meetings. They only spoke to him when he was directly involved in whatever they were currently negotiating.   
  
Darunia in particular seemed to have a deep dislike of Ganondorf. The Goron king adopted a harsh dislike of anybody who insulted him or his Sworn Brothers. Not that Ganondorf cared, after all. He was glad he'd said that.   
  
One person he did care about hearing his denigration of the king was Impa. She hadn't talked to him with the same comfort as the day before. He still felt glad that she was there to talk to him... But she seemed a little more distant today.   
  
For some reason, her ignoring him bothered him more than the others.   
  
So Ganondorf sat in his chair a little distance away from the king, sighing and listening to the monotonous humming of voices. He was beginning to wish that he had a napkin to fold up.   
  
A few of the other dignitaries seemed to believe that Ganondorf's comments at dinner had torn down the racial relations that the first day of meetings had begun to build up so well. Things were very tense in the meeting room today.   
  
"Well..." Harkinian began, breaking the tense silence by clearing his throat. "If we've got the borders established... then perhaps we should move on to trade issues, correct?"   
  
The other dignitaries glanced back and forth to one another, no one really wanting to speak.   
  
Harkinian laced his fingers together and tapped his fist on the table a few times. "Does anyone have anything they'd like to bring up?" he said quietly.   
  
Ganondorf was leaning back in his chair in a rather undignified manner. Slumped back, resting his feet on the crossbar beneath the table, his arms back creating a cushion for his head, and his eyes darting around the tiles of the stone ceiling. He took a deep breath and moved his left hand from behind his head, raising it only slightly.   
  
The other dignitaries turned to him nervously as Harkinian immediately seemed to pipe up. "Ah, Lord Ganondorf. Speak."   
  
The Gerudo sat up, taking another deep breath. "I want more gold coming into Gerudo Valley."   
  
Harkinian sighed with relief, having been expecting another comment like the one last night. "Ah, yes... even before the war, trade with the Gerudo was alarmingly low. That's a good topic, Lord Ganondorf... yes, what are we going to do to increase the imports and exports from the Gerudo?"   
  
"Don't Gerudo STEAL things?" Darunia muttered in a lowered voice from across the table.   
  
Ganondorf sat up quickly, his feet slamming into the floor as they tumbled off of the crossbar. "That's not-" he began, his voice raised.   
  
"There's no need for such bluntness, Brother Darunia," Harkinian scolded. "Now, please... things went so smoothly yesterday. All of a sudden we're tense and arguing. I'd like everyone to please relax and figure out what's going on."  
  
No one spoke.   
  
"This is IMPORTANT," Harkinian said, his eyes narrowed at all of the others. "You're all acting immaturely. It's ridiculous. If anyone has any problems here, I'd like to hear them now."   
  
"It's hard to set up a treaty when your dignitaries hate each other," Ganondorf said lazily.   
  
He was keeping his eyes on Impa as he said it. She had been sitting quietly this whole time, and now, she turned to him with her eyes stuck in a look of concern.   
  
"There is no hatred here, Lord Ganondorf," Harkinian interjected. "We are here because we wish to prevent the effects of hatred. We've just been delivered from the grips of a terrible war, and it's our job to ensure that that doesn't happen again."   
  
"Speak for yourself," Ganondorf shrugged nonchalantly, though he was still watching Impa.   
  
"Do you doubt our intentions, Lord Ganondorf?" Harkinian asked crossly.   
  
"I doubt your sincerity, your majesty."   
  
There was a collective gasp as all eyes fell on the Gerudo king for at least the hundredth time that weekend.   
  
"You little punk!" Darunia gaped, narrowing his beady black eyes in a glare. "What are you tryin' to say? Don't you insult my brother, you..."   
  
"Ah, go eat a brick."   
  
"Lord Ganondorf," Impa interrupted in a soft voice. "Please..."  
  
Ganondorf stopped his tirade for a moment and stared at her, looking confused.   
  
Impa shook her head at him when she had caught his attention. "Don't," she mouthed silently.   
  
"You little punk, I'll rip you apart!" Darunia boomed loudly.   
  
Ganondorf turned away from Impa and back to the Goron king, ignoring her warning. "Go ahead and try it you big fat-"   
  
"Really, Lord Ganondorf, please behave yourself!" Harkinian razed, slowly rising to his feet. "This is a meeting of acceptance and mercy. Such open hostility is precisely what we're trying to-"  
  
"You're all really ones to talk about open hostility!" Ganondorf interrupted, slamming both of his fists on the table.   
  
The room fell silent once more.   
  
"Open hostility... like what you've all been showing my people for YEARS now?!" he went on, his voice dark and his head lowered. "You're a bunch of hypocrites... How DARE you even invite me here to talk about your peace and your brotherhood? Do you think I'm stupid?! Do you think I don't know what kind of reputation my people have with you? Do you think I haven't seen what happens to Gerudos caught stealing from you people? I held my mother's bloody hand as she died, with scars from your 'acceptance' and 'mercy' all over her body."   
  
Impa stared at him, her mouth wide open in a shocked gasp.   
  
"If there was such a hope for peace..." Ganondorf continued, "Then I wouldn't have people staring at me all the time like I'm some kind of outcast. I wouldn't have to stay quiet all the time to avoid pissing someone off. I wouldn't have to hide from the world. Your bloody 'acceptance' and 'mercy' holed me up in the desert for all these years, and now you have the gall to call me out for your damn treaty."  
  
He look up and glared without remorse at every other person in the room. "You all don't give a shit what happens to the Gerudo. I'm just here for decoration. All of this is decoration, like a damn giant banner!"   
  
"Lord Ganondorf..." Harkinian said, his eyes wide with surprise.   
  
"This whole damn thing just reeks of a pretty little decoration. A peace treaty on the wall to make it look better. You talk about your bloody acceptance and shit, but do you actually think anyone will listen? You actually think there will be mercy for a Gerudo caught stealing? Things will exactly the same as before, but now there will be a cute little decoration to go along with it, just so if anyone asks, you can tell them that it was there, written in blood."   
  
He rose to his feet and stepped out from in front of his chair, one hand gripping the back of it until his knuckles turned pale.   
  
"I'll sign your piece of shit treaty. But I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you all making your bloody false promises of 'acceptance' and 'mercy'."   
  
And with that and a swoosh of his cape as he spun around, Ganondorf stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him.   
  
That evening, the treaty was signed.   
  
With solemn handshakes and deep nods, each of the dignitaries scribbled their signatures at the bottom of the parchment, carefully inscribed with every agreement that had been reached.   
  
Impa quietly stood with the quill once she had signed, not really knowing what to do with it now.   
  
She and the rest of the dignitaries were silent as a thick olive hand took the quill from her and quietly wrote its owner's name at the bottom of the page.   
  
Then, with a quiet nod, the king of the Gerudo folded his arms at his chest and pushed open the door of the great hall with his shoulder, once again leaving the rest of them to watch him.   
  
"I'm dreadfully sorry, your majesty..." a calm voice said apologetically as she kneeled before the king. "I'm truly sorry... I thought my nephew had more manners than that."   
  
"Yes, well..." Harkinian sighed, motioning for Marya to rise. "I understand, under the circumstances, it must have been very stressful for him. He mentioned that his mother was killed by Hylians when he was young."  
  
"Yes," Marya nodded quietly, her arms folded behind her back respectfully. "He's very sensitive about it... and he's always had a bit of a temper. But truly, to put the entire treaty in jeopardy like that... From the depths of my heart, your majesty, I apologize for young master's behavior."   
  
The king and the Gerudo woman were in the now empty throne room, shadowed and lit only by the sconces on the wall. Everyone else was down in the grand ballroom, as the celebratory ball had begun a little less than two hours ago. Harkinian had called for Marya to speak with him soon after it had begun, when there were no other dignitaries to interrupt him.   
  
"I am truly saddened by what he said," Harkinian sighed. "Because I have had the same thoughts... Thoughts that perhaps, this treaty is futile."  
  
"I don't believe that, your majesty," Marya shook her head. "It's true, it is difficult to convince people who have hated for so long to finally begin to love again. But I know, with time, things will be forgiven... Perhaps even young master will realize that he isn't helping any with his bitterness."   
  
"He said he was only here as 'decoration'," Harkinian told her, glancing off across the throne room at the banners that had been hung in celebration of the treaty. The black Gerudo crescent and star was illuminated especially brightly by the torch below it. It was rather symbolic.   
  
"He believes that no matter what agreements we reach, the Gerudo will always be treated unfairly," the king continued, gazing back to Marya.   
  
"He's believed that for a long time... and it's understandable," Marya sighed. "After the death of his mother... He's had a hard life. The male Gerudo is treated like a god... But Ganondorf isn't the kind of person who necessarily likes that. Since he was young, we've had to deprive him of things that normal boys cherish... Things like friendship, freedom... a childhood, even. All in preparation of his kinghood. He gets frustrated..."  
  
Marya smiled just a little bit, and closed her eyes, her thick golden eyeshadow sparkling in the dim light of the room and her red hair cascading over her shoulders, rippling as she shook her head. "Since his mother died, I've had to be the one to take things away from him. It's painful for me to watch him get frustrated like that. He has no idea how he's supposed to behave sometimes. He's like a son to me... but I feel like the worst person in the world when I have to take things from him."   
  
Harkinian smiled a little. "Yes... it's hard to be in a position like that... Things were a little different for me, but I know how it feels to be trapped by power."   
  
"Your mother probably felt guilty about it too," Marya chuckled. "It's not easy to be the parent of a god."   
  
The throne room fell silent as Harkinian continued to gaze off at the banner across the room. Finally, Marya spoke again.   
  
"I'll talk to him, your majesty. Again, I truly apologize for Ganondorf's behavior today... If it's not too much trouble, perhaps we could return in a month or two for some private talks?"   
  
"That would be fine," Harkinian nodded. "I would be happy if the two of us could learn to get along... That way, our races would be united as well."   
  
"Do you know where he is, your majesty?" Marya asked, bowing to Harkinian once more.   
  
"I believe he retired to his chamber after the treaty was signed," the king replied. "Allow me to call some guards, and I will escort you there myself. I'd like to at least make peace with him before you leave to return to the desert."   
  
  
  
A few minutes later, Marya and Harkinian, with an entourage of palace guards, were making their way through the twisted corridors of the castle to Ganondorf's chamber.   
  
"Niiiice plaaaaace," Marya whistled, done with her formality. "You got some niiiiice stuff here!"   
  
Harkinian looked a little bit nervous as he chuckled a reply. "It's mostly leftover from when my father was king... I've always loved it here. The castle is quite a place for a little boy to grow up, what with all the secret passages and-" He stopped.   
  
Marya had disappeared from beside him. He and the guards gasped when they saw her further down the hall, carefully examining a golden candle sconce on the wall.   
  
"Fan-cy!" Marya cooed, rubbing off a spot with her finger. "Really nice! 15th century Goron craftsmen! That is one nice-"  
  
"M-Miss Marya, your nephew?" Harkinian reminded her tensely, as the guards rushed up to protect the candle from the thief.  
  
"Oh yeah," she giggled, placing her hands at her side quickly.   
  
The three guards watched her like hawks as they turned down the last corridor before Ganondorf's chamber.   
  
"Here we are," Harkinian said, lowering his voice. "You may go in first, Miss Marya."   
  
Marya nodded, stepped up to the door (Which was veeeeery niiiiiice, she noticed), and knocked on it with her thin knuckles. "Ganondorf? Hey kid, it's me, Marya. Come on and open up."   
  
There was no answer from inside.   
  
"Ganondorf, I'm coming in now, okay? The King wants to speak with you," Marya called again, pushing on the door and sliding it open, slipping inside.   
  
The king and the three guards waited outside as the door clicked shut, waiting for Marya to convince Ganondorf to let them in.   
  
There was suddenly a terrified scream from inside Ganondorf's chamber.   
  
Harkinian's eyes popped open and he reached down to push the door open, when suddenly the mahogany swung open rapidly and a lavender-clad Gerudo woman threw herself out, her eyes wide and horrified and her voice a shrill scream.  
  
"WHERE IS HE?!" she shrieked. "WHERE IS MY NEPHEW?!"  
  
"What?" gasped Harkinian, reaching out to catch the door and hold it open. He stopped when Marya tackled him back against the wall, clutching at his robes.   
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM, WHERE IS HE?!" she screamed. "WHERE IS GANONDORF?!"   
  
The guards grabbed Marya by the arms and pulled her off of Harkinian, whose first free reaction was to push by them and into Ganondorf's room. "Lord Ganondorf!" he called.   
  
His mouth dropped open.   
  
The window of the bedroom was wide open, with splinters of the shutters around it torn down, a slightly ripped tan Gerudo cape hanging off of them. The bed was a wreck, with many of the blankets pulled off into a wrinkled heap on the floor.   
  
Most terrifying of all, there was a streak of red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood going from the open window to the bed, with a big red handprint on the bed next to the pillow.   
  
"Sweet Nayru..." gasped Harkinian, clamping one hand over his mouth. "Oh sweet Nayru..."   
  
"WHERE IS HE?!" screeched Marya, shoving the guards away from her and stumbled back into the bedroom. "WHAT HAPPENED IN HERE, WHERE IS HE?!"   
  
"Miss Marya... I... I..." Harkinian stammered.   
  
It certainly looked grim. There was unmistakable suspicion of foul play scattered all over the room.   
  
Marya was shaking in fear as she raced over to the window, yanking the ripped cape off of the splintered shutter and clutching it to her chest. "Ganondorf... Oh Din, Ganondorf!" Marya shrieked, squeezing the cape. "Yo-your majesty, he... he..."   
  
Harkinian spun around to his guards and boomed out an order. "Search the palace! Find Lord Ganondorf immediately, and arrest anyone with him!"  
  
"Yes, your majesty!" saluted the guards, racing off down the corridor.   
  
Harkinian bit his lip darkly.   
  
After what Ganondorf had said... After what he'd almost done to the treaty... Did someone actually come into his room and attack him?!   
  
"If he's dead..." Marya burst out, a hint of rage in her voice. "Our people are doomed... And we will make you bastard Hylians PAY!"   
  
"Miss Marya, I promise, we will do all in our power to get to the bottom of this!" Harkinian said, though her threat had made him very nervous.   
  
Even though all of the clues pointed to foul play or an attack, there was actually a perfectly innocent, and true, explanation for what had happened in Ganondorf's room.   
  
In order to understand it, we must return to where we left Ganondorf in the present time- the evening of the second day, as he lay on his bed.   
  
After a lot of thought, the Gerudo King had decided that he should go and see Impa. He wondered if she, like the others, was angry at him. There was only one way to find out.  
  
He rose to his feet and strolled around his room, trying to think of some way he could escape without anyone seeing him. He was too nervous about getting into a confrontation with one of the other dignitaries to go out the door... The window would have to do.   
  
The wide window of the room had been narrowed down to a space about a foot wide and three feet tall. A pair of mahogany shutters that had been fastened to the stone on both sides helped filter out the harsh sun that came into this east-facing room in the morning, but now they were in his way.   
  
If Ganondorf could get one of those shutters off, he could squeeze through the space and drop down to the castle grounds, where he could sneak around to the west part of the courtyard to the ballroom.   
  
Reaching up and wrapping his hands around one of the slots of the shutter, Ganondorf placed his boot up against the wall and pulled with all his might. It wasn't budging. He tried kicking off of the wall in small bursts of strength, but that didn't seem to work either.   
  
Finally getting frustrated, Ganondorf concentrated all of his energy into yanking at the shutter with one tremendous kick.  
  
There was a loud splintering noise, and a burst of pain shot through Ganondorf's hand. "OW!" he cried, falling backwards and onto the floor.   
  
He'd finally managed to break that part of the shutter off. Unfortunately, it had splintered, and one large sharp piece of wood had become lodged in his hand.   
  
Wincing as he pulled it out, Ganondorf panicked when he began to bleed heavily. Drops of blood splashed to the stone floor, ironically missing the blood-red carpets. He jumped to his feet and looked for something to wipe his hand on.   
  
The top quilt on the bed was fine maroon velvet, and he didn't want to ruin such a nice fabric. With his other hand, he ripped the quilt and the cream-colored silk sheet beneath it off of the bed and flung it onto the floor next to the bed. Without much more of a choice, he wiped his bloody hand that had been dripping on the floor off on the linen-covered mattress, just to the left of the pillow.   
  
He sat there for a while, cursing every time his hand would drip blood on the mattress. Dammit, as though it weren't enough that he'd nearly ruined the treaty, now he was bleeding all over Harkinian's sheets too!  
  
The cut finally began to slow its bleeding, and Ganondorf felt confident enough to leave the mattress and continue his work of removing the shutter.   
  
Slamming the armor over his elbow into the broken part of the shutter, he managed to snap off a few more rows of it until finally, he could pull the whole thing off, leaving jagged splintered pieces of wood sticking out where the shutter wouldn't pull away from the stone.   
  
Using his good hand to pull himself up into the window frame, Ganondorf carefully slid his body through the space. He was constantly feeling below the window for the blocks of stone that jutted out enough to make a fine place for him to stand as he climbed out.   
  
Finally, his body was outside, standing on the blocks of stone below the window.   
  
He tried to step backwards and begin his descent to the ground, when he realized that his cape had become caught on one of the splintered pieces of the shutters.   
  
"CURSES!" he snarled, yanking on the stupid thing with both hands.   
  
This, however, was not a good idea, as he lost his balance and tumbled over backwards.   
  
The Gerudo King was now hanging from the window by his cape.   
  
Choking as the thing almost strangled him to death, Ganondorf reached up to his neck where the cape was secured by a steel and ruby brooch. He carefully played with the clasps, until it finally loosened and snapped apart, freeing him from his predicament.   
  
Unfortunately, this was when Ganondorf remembered that his room was on the second floor.   
  
After an ungraceful landing, Ganondorf picked himself up and brushed himself off, gazing begrudgingly up at the window, his cape now fluttering from the broken shutters like a flag. So much for disappearing without a trace.   
  
He trudged off across the castle grounds, hoping no guards would see him, on his way to the ballroom.   
  
Impa was sitting on the windowsill of the ballroom's largest window, it having been slid open to let in the glorious night air and the ever-present full moon outside.   
  
A grand orchestra was playing off to one side of the ivory-bespangled room, a mish-mashed group of Gorons, Zora, Hylians and Deku, strumming away at makeshift guitars and playing clay ocarinas. People were dancing merrily on the floor, and a wide table at the head of the room was filled with delicious-looking food.   
  
The dignitaries and all of their guests were back, as well as a good number of the castle town's population. It seemed like everyone in Hyrule was here.   
  
Harkinian had given her the night off to come here. He had been terribly kind about all of this treaty business, Impa thought. She didn't really want to dance, and she wasn't hungry. For now she was content to sit and think near the window.   
  
Off in one corner of the ballroom were the Gerudos who had accompanied Ganondorf to the opening ceremonies. Most of them were eating off of small plates they'd taken from the table up front, but none of them seemed to be talking to anyone else. They all sort of stayed in their big group.   
  
One young Gerudo who looked about Impa's age, was impatiently staring at the grand doors in the north part of the room, as though she were waiting for someone (Ganondorf, probably) to come in.   
  
That must be his cousin Nabooru, Impa thought.   
  
The day before, at the lunch break, Ganondorf had been telling Impa about his family. His closest family members were his Aunt Marya and her daughter, Nabooru. The rest of the women were not blood related to him; either that or they were so distantly related he couldn't acknowledge them as family.   
  
They were all so beautiful, Impa mused. Living away from the rest of Hyrule in Kakariko, Impa had never heard of the Gerudo and their lives as thieves. But apparently, after what Ganondorf had said at the meeting, they weren't very popular.   
  
Impa had a hard time believing that such graceful, powerful, beautiful women could be so terrible. She also thought that she was beginning to understand what Ganondorf had meant about it being strange to be the only male Gerudo.   
  
Even if the Gerudo weren't well-liked, at least they were beautiful. Ganondorf, though certainly handsome in his own way, was not beautiful like the female Gerudo were. He was a little anomaly, something weird to everyone else. And what are you if you're considered an anomaly out of a group of outcasts?   
  
Impa's thoughts occasionally drifted to her own family.   
  
She wondered where they'd gone. She still wondered why she didn't go with them.   
  
It hurt to think that her mother had left her behind on purpose. Impa could visualize the scene: Her mother, waking up her little brother and clutching her baby sister to her chest. She led the boy by the hand towards the door, then gave one last glance back to Impa before she stepped outside and vanished into the shadows.   
  
Whatever happened to them, Impa didn't think they were ever going to come back. The palace was going to be her new home permanently. Not that that was so bad anymore, of course.   
  
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back.   
  
Impa let out a quick gasp and spun around, nearly toppling off of the windowsill and onto the owner of the hand.   
  
"Hey!" Ganondorf hissed, loud enough so she could hear him but not so loud that anyone else would.   
  
Impa took a deep breath and sighed. "You scared me!" she snorted, smiling.   
  
"Are you doing anything important?" asked Ganondorf in the same hissing voice.   
  
"Me? ... No," Impa shrugged. "Why?   
  
"Let's go out in the courtyard and talk," he suggested.   
  
Impa gave him a funny look. "Why can't you come in?"   
  
"Please?" he asked.   
  
Impa gave a quick glance to make sure that no one was looking, then lifted her body up and slid out the window and into the bushes where Ganondorf was hiding. Once she had ducked below view of the window, Ganondorf nudged her and pointed in the direction of the courtyard.   
  
The two of them ran off just before the guards arrived in the grand ballroom.   
  
"WHERE IS LORD GANONDORF?" the head guard cried as he opened the door.   
  
Everyone in the room paused and stared at him, not quite knowing what he was asking.   
  
"Whaddya mean, where is he? Isn't he coming?" asked one of the Gerudo in the corner.   
  
"He's missing, and we've been ordered to find him!" the head guard answered her in a serious voice.   
  
The response from the Gerudo was amazing. All fifteen of them let out terrified gasps, and raced towards the guards.   
  
"Find him, please!"  
  
"Lord Ganondorf! Oh, Lord Ganondorf!"  
  
"WHERE IS HE, YOU BASTARD?!"  
  
"What have you Hylians done to Lord Ganondorf?!"   
  
"Ganny!" burst out Nabooru, looking frightened. "G-Ganny's GONE!?"   
  
The Gerudo immediately joined the search, causing quite an uproar as they began shoving people aside searching for their king.   
  
"To tell you the truth," Ganondorf began, as he had a seat on a low ivy-covered wall in the central courtyard of the castle, "I didn't want to come in because I don't think anyone else really wants to see me."   
  
"Ah," Impa nodded, having a seat on the well next to him. She leaned back and wiped strands of her silver hair out of her face. "That's being a little hard on yourself."   
  
"But it's true," he pointed out in a low voice. He shuffled his feet in the dirt down below the wall, tracing a circle and then erasing it over and over again. "I was a little out of line today... And I guess I wanted to know if I insulted you at all."   
  
Impa looked at him out of the corner of her red eyes, a little bit surprised. "Huh?"   
  
He glanced at her with his eyebrows raised. "I really insulted a few people today. I wanted to know if I insulted you."   
  
There was a brief moment of silence as Impa thought.   
  
"Well..." she said quietly. "I... I don't really like how you were rude to Harkinian."  
  
Ganondorf gave a little chuckle and nodded. "Okay... I thought so too. The way you looked at me right then gave it away."   
  
"I don't really understand why you're so short with him," Impa went on, feeling like she owed him more of an explanation. "He really is a wonderful man. When my people all disappeared, he took me in. He gave me a job... and he takes really good care of me. And he's a good king."   
  
Ganondorf scowled at the last part of that, but he didn't say anything.   
  
"So I guess I don't get why you're so rude to him anyway."   
  
"I... don't like Hylians, you know," he reminded her.   
  
"Because of your mother?"   
  
"Yeah... and for other reasons," Ganondorf went on, still tracing patterns in the dirt. "They've really never been fair... to anyone. Not just Gerudo, but to everyone. I mean, they show up here in Hyrule, and suddenly it becomes THEIR land. And they don't really do anything for it. The Gorons dig in the mines all day, and the Zora guard the water, and the Gerudo guard the desert... But the Hylians are the ones who really get everything."   
  
He stopped suddenly and glanced at Impa, who was listening to his every word. He hadn't meant to be that open.   
  
"So you don't like Hylians... But Harkinian wasn't the one who threw the first stone at your mother," Impa reasoned.  
  
Ganondorf turned red and fidgeted. Yeah, he knew that, but...   
  
"And Harkinian isn't the one who hates Gerudo."  
  
"I think a king should be able to control his people enough so they wouldn't hurt other people," Ganondorf snapped, a little ruder than he'd intended to.   
  
"You can't judge a king by the behavior of the people he leads. You of all people should know that," she said sagely, closing her eyes and nodding as though to confirm it.   
  
Ganondorf fell silent.   
  
"Everyone's been calling you a thief and a scoundrel, you said," Impa continued. "So they're doing to you what you're doing to Harkinian. It's not his fault when his people go out of control... In fact, that's what all this treaty business is about. He's trying to help his people become good people. And besides... you judge a king on how well his people are living. The Hylians are happy, and healthy, and they have safe places to live and plenty to eat... Harkinian is a good king."   
  
Impa glanced over at Ganondorf, who looked like he was thinking very hard. "So... With all due respect, Lord Ganondorf, I don't think you should take out your anger towards Hylians on their king. It's not his fault."   
  
Ganondorf was blushing furiously. He turned away so Impa wouldn't see, but he knew that she was absolutely right.   
  
"I'm..." she began again. "... sorry to sound so preachy. But that's what I think."   
  
"It's okay... you're right. And I did ask."   
  
Silence invaded their conversation. Well, as silent as it could be. There was some kind of uproar from the castle, and crickets were chirping all over the place.   
  
"So... what kind of a king do you think I'll be?" Ganondorf asked.   
  
"I've only known you for two days," Impa giggled.   
  
"Well, yeah... but..." he stammered, shuffling around. "You seem to be a good judge of character... Do you think I'll be a good king?"   
  
Impa sat for a moment, studying Ganondorf carefully. His expression kept changing as she examined him with her eyes, and seemed to be thinking.   
  
"You're very passionate," Impa pointed out. "That's good for a king. You have a lot of emotion, and you know what you feel and why."   
  
Ganondorf laughed.   
  
"And you're pretty strong, so you'd be good in case of a battle," she went on. "And you seem pretty compassionate too... that's a wonderful trait for a king, Lord Ganondorf."   
  
"Funny... my aunt tells me I need to shape up before I'm the king."   
  
"Why?" asked Impa.   
  
"I don't like people to worship me like they do," Ganondorf explained, kicking in the dirt.   
  
"They worship you?" Impa repeated.   
  
"There's only one male Gerudo born every hundred years. And he's treated like a god," Ganondorf went on bitterly. "It's weird... I really don't like it. Ever since I was a kid, they've all called me 'young master' or 'Lord Ganondorf'. Even my friends had to call me that. When we'd play together, it would never be a group affair really. The girls always asked me what I wanted to do, and that's what we did. It was always up to me to decide everything."   
  
Impa looked impressed. "That sounds strange."   
  
"It got worse as I got older. Suddenly, all these things I'd been doing since I was a kid... they got really serious," he continued. "When they'd go hunting, the others would start bringing me things. Sacrifices. I'd never know what to do with them, so I'd always just give them back. On my birthdays, they'd have this bizarre rituals where they'd all bow to me and chant... I hated it. And even worse..."   
  
He paused, checking to make sure Impa was still listening.   
  
"Even worse... I can't be with my friends anymore. Last time I had an afternoon to myself, I went to see them and we decided to practice horseback archery... but none of them would speak to me. Whenever I'd speak, they'd all bow down... and they wouldn't address me by my name."   
  
Ganondorf sighed and stared up at the sky. "My grandmothers have to start teaching me sorcery... My aunt is the one who has to tell me what I can and can't do... My mother was really the only one who treated me like I was a human being and not some kind of sacred object."   
  
Impa smiled.   
  
"She never called me 'lord' or 'master'. She always insisted that her friends treat me like a normal kid too. I don't think she wanted my role to go to my head... and I'm really grateful to her for that. If she wasn't the way she was, I'm afraid of who I'd be. Some kind of power-hungry monster... Someone like the other Gerudos seem to want me to be." (A/N: T.T The foreshadowing is really starting to get to me.)   
  
"After she died..." he sighed. "After she died, everything starting going wrong... and it still is. Next year I'll have to start..." He cringed at the very thought. "... Start... having... children. With my friends... I love them but I don't love them like that. And the worst part..."   
  
Impa was still watching him, her shock at his story evident on her face. She'd had no idea...   
  
"The worst part is... even though I'm supposed to be some kind of god... I really don't have any power at all. I can't control the one thing I want to... my own destiny. I can't even control myself..."   
  
He glared up at the sky, his yellow eyes staring up as though to challenge the person who put him in this position. "What kind of a king can't control his own destiny...?"   
  
"Lord Ganondorf..." Impa whispered, stunned.   
  
"Just Ganondorf!" he corrected quickly, glaring at her. "Just Ganondorf... Not lord. I don't want to be a lord... I don't want to be a king. The only thing I want is enough power to make things the way I want them to be... And if that means I have to become a god, then so be it. I'll be a god if I have to... as long as I get the power to control my own self."   
  
  
  
The silence returned, full-force. Impa sat on the ivy wall awkwardly watching Ganondorf, who had stood up and was walking slowly back and forth.   
  
"Are you lonely?" he suddenly asked her.   
  
"Me?" Impa squeaked, then cleared her throat. "Me... lonely? Well... I..."   
  
"Because I am," Ganondorf said, lowering his voice a great deal. He didn't sound angry anymore. His eyes were solemn as he walked slowly towards her.   
  
Impa felt her cheeks burning. "I AM alone..." she said quietly. "But... I'm not going to let that stop me..."   
  
"From what?"   
  
"Stop me from being happy," she said fiercely, but she wasn't angry at him. "I don't know why I'm alone... I don't know where the rest of my people went. But no matter what, I'm not going to let it destroy me."   
  
"That's very noble," Ganondorf said. "I'm alone in the whole world... Nobody understands what it's like for me... Except for you, Impa."  
  
Impa let out a little squeak and stared at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean by that?"   
  
"I'm not going to let it destroy me, either... I'll find a way. We'll find a way, Impa. We'll find a way to get what we want. You want to be happy, and I want to be myself... You're on my side, aren't you Impa?"   
  
"Your side...?"   
  
"You know what it's like... you know what I mean when I say I want control, don't you?" he asked quickly.   
  
"You want control over your own life... You're alone, and the only person who can steer you in the right direction is yourself..." Impa said, her eyes widening at him.   
  
"Exactly!" he burst out. "You do understand... you are on my side, right?"   
  
"I'm on your side!" she said spiritedly.   
  
"And you'll always be on my side, right?"   
  
"Always," she nodded officially.   
  
"We'll get what we want, no matter what..." Ganondorf said, his voice beginning to sound distant. Like he was thinking about something else. "No matter what... we'll be happy..."   
  
He stopped pacing in front of Impa, who was gazing at him. "Ganondorf?"   
  
"You do understand me..."   
  
"Yes... you understand me too... right?" she asked.   
  
"Yes... we're on the same side... we're on each others' side..." he mumbled, having a seat next to her on the left. He was closer this time than before, though.   
  
"Ganondorf...?" Impa muttered nervously.   
  
"It's us against the world..." he continued to mumble, reaching over with his left hand.   
  
Impa flinched as Ganondorf placed his left hand on top of hers, which were folded together neatly in her lap. A little shiver went down her spine and she gasped, gazing up at him like she didn't get what he was talking about. "Ganondorf...?"   
  
He squeezed her hand. "It's just you and me... against the whole world... We will get what we want... right?"   
  
"Right..." Impa murmured, her heart pounding. He was squeezing her hand... but why? What exactly was he doing...?   
  
"When I talk to you, I feel more free than with anyone else..." Ganondorf went on, moving closer to her.   
  
Impa froze in place. "Ganondorf... what are you doing?"   
  
To see if she'd let him, he placed his trembling right hand on her shoulder. "You're a part of my freedom, I guess..."   
  
"Ganondorf..." Impa stammered. "Ganondorf... what are you trying to do...?"   
  
Suddenly, he was leaning towards her, staring at her with soft yellow eyes. "Impa... I don't know how, but..."   
  
He kissed her on the cheek, then let his forehead fall down and rest on her shoulder with his hand. "But you really... really got to me these two days..."   
  
Impa was absolutely stunned. He just... "G-Ganondorf...?" she stuttered, not knowing what to say next. "I... I think... we... we'd better..."   
  
She was interrupted when the fingers of his hand caught her chin. "You understand, don't you?" he whispered as he leaned in, heading for her lips this time.   
  
He was kissing her. Impa felt like something was exploding in her chest. Her heart was pounding, and her fingers were trembling as he squeezed her hands with his other one. This... this was what it felt like to have your first kiss...   
  
She didn't fight anymore, and the trembling began to slow down when she decided that she liked it. She was comfortable... It was nice, here in the courtyard, kissing this boy king, holding his hand, letting him play with strand of her hair with one hand...   
  
What is this? she thought.   
  
This can't be... It's only been two days...   
  
I don't LOVE him, do I?   
  
The noise of a large door slamming shut, and a lot of metal boots clanking towards them interrupted her thoughts.   
  
"LORD GANONDORF!" someone yelled.   
  
With a yelp, Ganondorf released Impa, nearly tumbling over backwards off of the wall and into a patch of ivy below them. As he recovered, he let out a huge gasp and forced himself to do just that, landing on his back in the ivy and yanking Impa down with him.   
  
"OUCH! What-"  
  
"They're looking for me!" he hissed out. "Oh shit... shit, I'm going to be in HUGE trouble for this..."   
  
"What?!" she gasped. "Why?!"   
  
"I'm not... I'm not supposed to..." he began, then suddenly fell silent when the shadows of the castle guards searching for him landed against the courtyard wall behind them.   
  
"Check over there, behind those bushes!"   
  
"We've GOT to find him... the peace between the Hylians and Gerudos depends on it!"   
  
Ganondorf felt sick when he heard that. Oh DIN... What have I done THIS time?   
  
A different shadow joined the guards; one of a Gerudo woman. A familiar one, with dangling charms all over her clothing and jewelry. "GANONDORF!" she yelled frantically. "GANONDORF!"   
  
His AUNT was looking for him.   
  
Ganondorf reached over and yanked Impa towards him, the two of them crumpled up in a bit of a heap in the ivy, trying to be perfectly silent. He could almost HEAR Impa's heart pounding, if it weren't for his own. If they were found...   
  
Ganondorf closed his eyes and silently prayed that they would just walk by, they wouldn't see or hear anything, they'd just keep moving and miss them entirely.   
  
He heard footsteps coming towards them.   
  
Please, please just miss us... he pleaded to no one in particular in his head. PLEASE... WALK BY...   
  
His prayer was answered when the footsteps began to move away. He let out a deep breath.   
  
But a little prematurely, unfortunately.   
  
  
  
A skinny hand reached down and grabbed Ganondorf by the wrist. He let out a cry as he was yanked to his feet, dropping Impa rather cruelly into the ivy where she slowly sat up and gazed at his predicament.   
  
Just as he gained his balance, he was sent reeling by a hand slapping him HARD across the face. He clutched at it with one hand and tripped, stumbling down onto his knees, wincing and listening to his ears ring.   
  
He opened his eyes and stared at the grass just as she began to scream.   
  
"GANONDORF DRAGMIRE!" shrieked Marya, in full rage. "DON'T YOU EVER DISAPPEAR LIKE THAT AGAIN! IF SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED TO YOU, WHAT WOULD WE DO?! YOU IRRESPONSIBLE LITTLE BRAT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING SNEAKING OUT OF YOUR ROOM LIKE THAT!?"   
  
"Aunt Marya!" Ganondorf interrupted, glancing over his shoulder at Impa as she was pulled to her feet by one of the guards. The guard also felt compelled to dust her off. She was staring at him with wide eyes, apparently worried.   
  
"YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FRATERNIZING WITH OTHER GIRLS!" Marya screeched. "YOU KNOW THAT! YOU KNOW THAT DAMN WELL! YOU ARE TO BE KING OF THE GERUDO AND YOU'RE SNEAKING AROUND SCARING THE HELL OUT OF ALL OF US TO SEE SOME... SOME... SOME GIRL!"   
  
"M-Miss Marya, please! It was my idea to-" Impa burst out, in an attempt to save Ganondorf from his aunt's rage.   
  
"THE ENTIRE CASTLE IS IN AN UPROAR OVER YOU, YOUNG MAN! THE ENTIRE CASTLE! YOU CAME THIS CLOSE TO STARTING ANOTHER FRIGGIN' WAR, YOU FOOL! HARKINIAN'S NEARLY PULLED ALL HIS HAIR OUT WORRYING ABOUT YOU! HERE WE ARE THINKING YOU'VE BEEN ASSASSINATED WHEN YOU'RE JUST OUT FOR A MIDNIGHT STROLL WITH A SHEIKAH GIRL!"   
  
Ganondorf was speechless as his aunt grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked him to his feet again, pulling him after her. "GET in here and APOLOGIZE TO THE KING RIGHT NOW! AND WHAT'S THIS BUSINESS WITH YOU INSULTING DIGNITARIES, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOOL?! YOU'RE GOING TO HEAR ABOUT THIS ALL THE WAY BACK HOME, I DON'T BELIEVE HOW SELFISH AND IRRESPONSIBLE YOU'RE BEING!"   
  
Impa met Ganondorf's worried eyes one more time before his aunt yanked him around the corner of the courtyard and back towards the castle.   
  
The next morning, he left.   
  
Impa stood outside the gates of Hyrule Castle with the sleeping Princess Zelda in her arms, as Harkinian bowed gratefully to Marya at the front of the carriage with her daughter.   
  
"I'm terribly sorry for all of the trouble he caused, your majesty," Marya said apologetically. "I promise next time you invite us, he will be on his best behavior... Perhaps behavior fitting to the king of the Gerudos," she said, throwing a vicious glance into the back of the wagon.   
  
Harkinian shook his head. "It was no trouble at all, Miss Marya... I'm only sorry that we couldn't reach a full, peaceful agreement before you had to go."   
  
"I'm sorry to leave early... But it seems our little king here is getting too big for his britches," Marya said, throwing another icy glare back into the wagon.   
  
"Mom..." Nabooru hissed. "Please..."   
  
"We'll teach him how to behave at events like this, I promise, your majesty," Marya promised, bowing to him one last time before she whipped the horses, and they began their steady trot down the road leading away from the castle.   
  
The last time Impa saw him, he was staring at her through a hole in the canvas on the back of the wagon, the same way he had been when she first saw him.   
  
Impa couldn't help but notice, as she rocked Zelda and hoisted her over her shoulder, how sad he looked as the wagon carried him back to the desert...   
  
(A/N: Awwww... T.T Yeep, crappy romance scenes!!! ::SOB!:: Okay, the next chapter is a good deal shorter, so I decided I'd just stick it down at the bottom here. Now, we're 10 years in the future. Actually, this chapter takes place THE DAY BEFORE Link arrives at Hyrule Castle and meets Zelda for the first time in OoT. Impa and Ganondorf are both 26, Zelda is 10, and Harkinian is... older. o.o;;)   
  
CHAPTER FOUR: Zelda's Dream  
  
~~~TEN YEARS LATER...~~~  
  
Sunlight was just beginning to stream in through the window, casting dreamy-looking beams across the room. Dust floating in the air looked like magic as it drifted about through the light, following it all the way down and into the face of the girl.   
  
With a little moan and a frown, she turned over and sleepily buried her head in the silk pillowcase, her blonde hair terribly frizzy and wrapping all around her head and neck. One trembling hand pulled her sheets over her head, and she pulled her legs up into her body to keep them warm in the chilly room.   
  
She cringed as the door slid open with a creaky groan, squeaking terribly as a woman walked in.   
  
"Zelda, sweetheart, time to wake up," Impa said crisply, carrying a small tray with a few items on it and setting on her bedside table.   
  
Impa had grown a great deal in the last 10 years. Tall and fit, the years having had sculpted her body into a muscular fighting machine, her silver hair was still kept in a thick ponytail behind her head and her eyes and face still sported the tattoos of her race. She wore navy shorts, silver body armor with leather straps, and black boots and bracers. A small knife with the Sheikah-eye design was fastened to a holster on her back in case she needed to use it.   
  
"Impaaaaaa..." the princess moaned, one of her bright blue eyes opening enough to glare at her. "Let me sleep more..."   
  
"It's almost 9 o'clock, Princess," Impa laughed, pulling the covers down and off of her. "You need to wake up... There's a lot to do today, don't waste it in bed!"   
  
Zelda sat up lazily, wiping the sleep out of her eyes and untangling her pink silk nightgown from where it had wrapped around her feet. She had grown up into a lovely young lady, with long blonde hair to her mid-back, bright blue eyes like her father's, and an impressive mind. She loved to read and talk more than anything else, and had grown to be quite a storyteller.   
  
Impa folded up a white washcloth from the tray and dipped it in the bowl of water next to Zelda's bed, wringing it out before kneeling down and touching the back of Zelda's neck with one hand. "Sit up, let me wash your face."   
  
Zelda yawned while Impa ran the cloth over her eyes and face, shivering at the coldness of the water. "I had that dream again, Impa..."   
  
Impa handed her a dry cloth to blot her face with, and headed across the room to the closet to get Zelda's clothes. "Which dream would that be, Princess?"   
  
"The one with the clouds," yawned Zelda again, stretching her arms behind her back and dropping the cloth nonchalantly on the tray with the rest of the items.   
  
"Dark clouds over the land of Hyrule?" Impa asked, smiling a little at the princess's tendency to over-dramatize the simplest sentences.   
  
"Yes... And then a white light from the forest with a green and shining stone," Zelda finished, reaching over to the tray and grabbing a glass of water to take sips from.   
  
"You're really worried about that, aren't you?" asked Impa again as she pulled out the princess's usual attire. A white blouse with a beautiful and intricately embroidered pink dress over it, and a 'turban' for her hair.   
  
"Impaaaa," Zelda sighed. "I've had prophetic dreams before... Father doesn't think this one means anything, though..."   
  
"Maybe it doesn't mean what you think, Princess," Impa smiled as she made her way back over, motioning for the princess to stand up with one hand.   
  
Zelda pulled her nightgown over her head, then took her blouse from Impa and slipped it on, pulling her hair through and having it land in a great knot in front of her eyes. "Oh pooh, my hair..." she moaned.   
  
"I'll brush it for you," Impa offered graciously.   
  
Impa and the princess had a special bond between them, one that crossed into friendship, sisterhood, and motherhood at times. Zelda trusted Impa more than anyone else, even her father, and Impa was extremely protective of Zelda.   
  
Zelda was the reason she was still here... Impa was now certain that if Harkinian hadn't allowed her to be the princess's nanny, she would have vanished too, like the rest of her people.   
  
The mystery of what had happened to the Sheikah of Kakariko Village still plagued her from time to time, but Impa found that she'd been able to survive. She was stronger now, because of it. She cherished her life at the palace with Zelda and Harkinian, and she cherished the fact that she was still here.   
  
Harkinian too, trusted Impa with his life. He had his own bodyguards, but Impa was always welcome anywhere she pleased to go, and he gave her anything she wanted. Just the year before, he'd extended to her the title of Guardian of Kakariko Village.   
  
Impa had been stunned to hear the news. The king trusted her enough to give her land of her own- the entire village where she'd grown up, the village she'd left behind when she was brought to the palace.   
  
She'd immediately opened it up to the poor of Hyrule, however. Impa watched over the village from the palace; however, she had left its care in the hands of Hyrule's homeless and needy. She was considered a great, noble woman by all of the new residents of Kakariko, and by anyone who knew her.   
  
Impa had certainly been able to overcome her trials. Though sometimes, she wondered if things would have been different...   
  
  
  
"Ouch!" Zelda fussed, one of her hands flying back to block Impa's own hand, holding a hairbrush.   
  
"Move your hands Princess, I'm almost done," Impa scolded, pressing her arm down with her free hand.   
  
"Don't pull so hard..." she whined.  
  
"Don't whine, Zelda. And remember our manners."  
  
"PLEASE don't pull so hard?"   
  
"Much better," Impa congratulated.   
  
"Impa, why do I have to go to the throne room all day today anyway?" Zelda asked childishly, glancing back at her nanny and crossing her hands in her lap.   
  
"Your father is meeting with an important guest from outside Hyrule today," Impa explained.   
  
"Why?"   
  
"I think your father wants to bring them into the Hylian Alliance," Impa answered.   
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"I'm not sure. I've been busy keeping my eye on you," her nanny smiled, placing a bobby pin in her lips with her free hand as she brushed. "Almost done..."   
  
She folded Zelda's cornsilk blonde hair up into a bun, and with her free hand, pierced the bun with another bobby pin. She removed the one in her mouth and speared the bun on the other side, finally securing it up. Then, she reached back for Zelda's turban and placed the band over her forehead, straightening it back and tapping the draping part with two fingers. "There you are. All done."   
  
"I don't want to sit in the throne room all day..." Zelda moaned, leaping to her feet and spinning around. She loved to watch her dress swirl around her feet. "I have better things to do..."   
  
"Like what?"   
  
"Like go to town," Zelda said excitedly. "I saw this beautiful hairpin for sale at one of the shops... It was pearl, with little amethyst flowers up top..."  
  
"Do you have any spending money?" questioned Impa. She'd been trying to teach Zelda not to go crying to her father every time she wanted something.   
  
"Yes, I've saved 54 Rupees in my jar," Zelda said proudly.   
  
"If we have some time this afternoon, I'll take you," Impa offered.  
  
"YAY!"  
  
"If you behave today."  
  
"Awww, but Impaaaaaa..."  
  
"No playing tricks on our guest," Impa scolded. "I'm surprised Big Brother Darunia didn't leave the Alliance when you put Rupees in his food and told him they were candy."   
  
"They WERE candy to HIM," the princess argued. "And he thought it was funny."   
  
"Is that so?" Impa smiled, still shaking her head. "Behave yourself anyway..."   
  
Zelda skipped from stone to stone on the floor, as though she was playing hopscotch. "Father said that we could go to Kakariko this weekend, Impa."   
  
Impa chuckled a little, leaning back on the bed and watching Zelda playing her game. "Is that so?" she said again. "That will be nice... I like to visit Kakariko."   
  
"You were born there, right?" asked Zelda.   
  
"Yes... I lived there until I was 16."   
  
"It's a cute village. I like it there too," the princess giggled. "I like the chickens. I wish we had chickens here in the castle. Can I get a chicken, Impa?"   
  
"I don't think your father would like that," Impa said, standing up and tapping Zelda on the shoulder. "Come. I told your father I'd have you ready in the throne room by 10."   
  
"Impa?"  
  
"Yes?"   
  
Zelda gazed up at her, her eyebrows furrowing a little bit. "Will you please tell Father that you believe me about my dream?"   
  
Impa stopped walking and gazed at her. "Zelda..."   
  
"Please? I really believe in this one, Impa..." Zelda sighed. "And no one believes me... please say you believe me?"   
  
Impa sighed, and kneeled down before her charge. "Zelda, sweetheart... I've always believed your dreams."   
  
"You don't believe me this time," Zelda frowned.   
  
"I do believe you... I just don't want you to go around telling everyone that something bad is going to happen. It might scare them... But I believe your dream does stand for something, though I'm not sure what. Okay?"   
  
"Okay... But tell my father that," Zelda insisted, crossing her arms. "Promise?"   
  
"I promise," Impa smiled, standing up and heading to the door. "Let's go."   
  
Harkinian smiled, and wrinkles ran down his forehead all the way to the bridge of his nose. "Impa, Zelda..."   
  
"Good morning Father!" Zelda waved pleasantly, as the guards on both sides of the red carpet leading to the throne bowed to her. She ran, in a rather undignified manner, all the way down the carpet and nearly tackled her father off of the throne as she hugged him.   
  
"Good morning, princess!" Harkinian chortled (meaning it as a pet name rather than as her title). "Good morning, Lady Impa."  
  
"Good morning, your highness. As I said, she's all ready," Impa smiled, bowing politely to the king.   
  
The king looked a good deal older than he had ten years ago. Now in his 40's, he had grown a thick beard and mustache that covered the top of his lip and his chin. His hair was still radiant and golden blond, going perfectly with the crown atop his head and his red silk robes. Kind-hearted wrinkles from smiling lined the corners of his lips and his forehead.   
  
"We have a very important guest today," Harkinian explained to Zelda as she got off of him and settled down into her own, smaller throne to his right. He glanced at Impa as he went on. "He is the leader of a race that has been outside Hyrule since the ending of the Great War ten years ago. I believe, as we finally extend the hand of friendship to them, that they will be a wonderful addition to our Alliance of Hyrule."   
  
Impa nodded, taking her place to Zelda's right.   
  
"As soon as he arrives, send him in," Harkinian told his head guard, who nodded.   
  
"Yes, your majesty."  
  
  
  
Almost on cue, another, lower-ranked guard ran up to the head guard and whispered something in his ear. The head guard muttered something back, and the lower one raced back down the red carpet.   
  
"Your majesty, your highness," the guard said to Harkinian and Zelda. "May I present, in all his excellence, the great King of Thieves..."   
  
Impa felt her heart give a little leap at his title.   
  
It couldn't be...   
  
"... Lord Ganondorf Dragmire, King of the Gerudo."   
  
The door at the end of the hall slid open, and the guards posted around it kneeled as he stepped inside.   
  
Thick brown boots secured with steel black armor appeared. Off-white cloth, decorated with red and blue patterns, was wrapped around his shins. Brown leather armor made up the upper part of his legs, his codpiece and the armor around his chest. A forest green cape, elaborately embroidered, hung behind him and swished as he walked. Black pants and a shirt peered out from below all the armor, and a black iron piece of armor wrapped around his shoulders and neck, ending in a pair of fingerless armor gloves around his thick hands. His skin was olive, and his body was muscular and powerful-looking.   
  
He did indeed look like a King of Thieves. Real gold studs decorated his armor, a huge and beautiful silver and topaz pendant hung from his neck, and single round topaz headpiece protruded from the center of his forehead, framed by his blood-red hair.   
  
His narrow, yellow eyes stared up at the king and the princess as he bowed.   
  
"King Harkinian, Princess Zelda..." he said in a deep, powerful voice.   
  
That's when he caught sight of Impa, standing in shock to Zelda's right. His eyes widened, and he blinked a few times as he rose from his knees.   
  
"Wait..." he mumbled. "You..."   
  
"Lady Impa of the Sheikah, Lord Ganondorf... do you remember her from ten years ago?" asked King Harkinian, smiling pleasantly.   
  
  
  
Ganondorf stared her down, so surprised to see her he almost forgot to glare at Harkinian. "Yes... how could I forget Lady Impa?"   
  
Impa was so stunned to see him, she almost forgot to bow. Sinking down, she mumbled, "Lord Ganondorf..."   
  
Ganondorf crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head at her.   
  
"Didn't I tell you to just call me Ganondorf, Lady Impa?" he asked, his piercing yellow eyes raking her body, then coming to rest at her eyes. He smiled... but it looked more like a sneer.   
  
Impa felt her knees nearly buckle, shocked at how different he looked. "I'm sorry. ...Ganondorf..."   
  
"Yes... I must have forgotten when we met 10 years ago..."   
  
*******************  
  
Yeep! I'm so excited! Ganny and Impa together again! -.- Unfortunately, he's corrupted now, and a little bit on the crazy side. How's Impa going to deal with Ganny's new mental problems?! When does Link come into all of this? How long will it be until Ganondorf offs Harkinian? (Not long. ^.~) I actually kicked my own ass hard enough to finish this chapter, so expect another one coming VERY SOON! (Really now, I'll try my hardest. ::salutes:: ) I think Zelda's so cute in this story, don't you? ^.^ 


	4. Five: The Darkening

Never My Destiny  
  
The World's FIRST Ganondorf/Impa!   
  
by Galaxy Girl   
  
A/N: Oh, I am so grateful to all of you who take the time to read my demented little idealistic fan fiction... I'll try to update more often now that I finally got my butt in gear for last chapter. Aaaaright, now the fun part- CRAZY GANONDORF!   
  
SUPPORT GISOA! GANONDORF/IMPA SHIPPERS OF AMERICA! (and the rest of the world too, really, we don't mind!)   
  
A Galaxy Girl and Zel the Stampede Organization  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa   
  
CHAPTER FIVE: The Darkening (Bum bum buuuummm.)   
  
**********************************************************  
  
Troubled.   
  
That's how Impa now felt whenever she saw Ganondorf smile, the way he was now from across the banquet table. He wasn't eating much; he seemed to be wrapped up in talking to King Harkinian and smiling at Impa with that strange new smile of his. A silver fork was folded in one of his fists, the other one set on the table in a permanent clutch as he spoke.   
  
"I'm hoping we'll finally be able to get our races to cooperate together, Lord Ganondorf," King Harkinian said brightly from the head of the table, where he lifted a glass of wine.   
  
"Yes... it's been my hope as well," Ganondorf replied, nodding a very small bit.   
  
"It seems like it's been so long since the last time I saw you... you were but a boy then, Lord Ganondorf. Now you've become a fine king," Harkinian commented as he took a sip of his wine. "Your entourage couldn't stop talking about how wonderful you are."   
  
"They flatter me, your majesty," Ganondorf chuckled, a bit of an uppity edge to his voice. His yellow eyes widened just a little bit and a sparkle came to them. "I try my best... I fear I'll never become a ruler such as you."   
  
Zelda was seated next to Impa, across the table from Ganondorf. She was holding her fork like a harpoon, repeatedly spearing the same small piece of fish on her plate as she waited for the meal to be over. Every so often she would give a bored sigh and stab the fish especially hard, rolling her eyes at something either her father or Ganondorf had said.   
  
Impa wasn't paying enough attention to Zelda to stop her fish-spearing. She was ripping her dinner roll into smaller pieces and nibbling on them, listening blankly to the conversation between Harkinian and Ganondorf, and busily watching the latter's every move.   
  
Ten years ago, she'd developed a crush... Well, perhaps it was more than that. A strong crush, on the young king of the Gerudo. She'd only known him for two days, so it was silly to say that it was love... but he was so different now.   
  
His skinny teenage body had been almost completely replaced by hard muscle, and along with it came a new strength, a stronger and more confident method of movement. As a youth he'd been more fidgety, seeming unable to hold still for very long. Now his every motion expressed a noble strength fit for a king like him.   
  
The greatest change came in his eyes.   
  
Before they'd been young. Calmer, happier, like they were used to smiling. There was sadness in them even then... Now the sadness was gone. And he still smiled often, but Impa noticed a threatening, cynical sort of glint in his eyes whenever he did.   
  
"Father... may Impa and I go to the market tomorrow?" Zelda finally said, cutting an awkward silence that had appeared out of nowhere.   
  
"Have you any spending money, Zelda?" asked her father.   
  
She sighed, having already had to convince her nanny of the fact. "I've saved 54 Rupees in my jar."   
  
"Good for you, my dear. Impa, if you wouldn't mind taking her tomorrow?" Harkinian asked her, chuckling a little.   
  
"Of course, your majesty," Impa nodded, the first thing she'd said in this entire meal.   
  
"Your daughter is quite charming, Harkinian," Ganondorf cut in, smiling at the princess. Impa noticed her charge give a little jump as he did, followed by a blank, sort of confused stare at him. A squeak sounded as Zelda moved her chair closer to Impa.   
  
The Gerudo King had seen her do it. He burst out into a laugh, loud and deep, setting his fork down on the side of his plate. "She's marvelous! Why don't I give you an extra 50 tomorrow, princess?"  
  
"Oh, that's not necessary, Ganondorf," Impa said quickly, a nervous smile on her face as she shook her head.  
  
"Nonsense, Lady Impa. My treat," Ganondorf interrupted her, chortling. "Every girl needs plenty of spending money... And she's such a pretty little girl... reminds me of my dear cousin Nabooru at a younger age."   
  
"Thank you, Lord Ganondorf... Impa has done a wonderful job of taking care of her," Harkinian smiled. "Zelda, what do you say to him?"   
  
His daughter stared at him like he had asked her to jump out the window. She turned to face Ganondorf, her eyebrows folding themselves into a twisted query.   
  
Ganondorf smiled once more, almost expectantly. He kept both eyes on the princess and just kept on smiling as he waited.  
  
Zelda still didn't say anything, she just continued giving him that queer little glance.   
  
"Zelda," Impa cleared her throat.   
  
"Thank you, Lord Ganondorf, sir," Zelda finally forced out.   
  
Ganondorf laughed once more, removing the napkin from his lap and setting it on top of the table. "The hospitality here is wonderful, your majesty... Thank you kindly for the warm welcome. It pains me to say that I must be heading for bed, now..." He rose to his feet to leave the table.   
  
"No trouble at all, your majesty," the king nodded, also rising to his feet. "We will begin our meetings tomorrow morning at 9 sharp... agreed?"   
  
"Agreed. Good night, your majesty. Good night, princess... and good night, Lady Impa," Ganondorf smiled, giving a low bow, sweeping, and with a swish of his cape, stepping out of the banquet hall doors.   
  
"Impa, he gives me the creeps!" Zelda shivered as the two of them headed down the hallway towards Zelda's bedroom. "He's CREEPY!"  
  
"That's not a very kind thing to say," Impa scolded as she walked with a brisk pace.   
  
She had to admit though, Zelda did know what she was talking about. He was still the same man, there was no doubt about it... That smile was the same as ten years ago. His laugh was the same as well... he even vaguely resembled that awkward boy from the courtyard.   
  
But still... it shocked her how different he seemed. Impa couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the feelings she'd had for him ten years ago had been changed by something.   
  
Her heart still gave a little leap when he spoke to her... But something was wrong.   
  
"But it's true!" Zelda proclaimed, tugging on Impa's arm. "I noticed you doing it too. There's something scary about that man... he has cruel eyes!"   
  
"He's not a cruel man," Impa said seriously. "He's a compassionate man... and a good king, I'm sure. I met him ten years ago when you were just a baby... he is a good man, Zelda. Appearances are deceiving."   
  
"He's scary," Zelda argued back. "Did you see the way he was looking at Father and me?"   
  
"Do I know this unpopular gentleman?" a deep voice cut in from behind them.   
  
Zelda let out a terrified squeal and spun around and Impa nearly jumped a foot in the air. She turned to see Ganondorf, leaning smugly against the wall, the familiar smile still crossing his face.   
  
"Oh, Lor... Ganondorf!" Impa let out a deep sigh, placing one hand on the princess's shoulder and bowing to him. "You startled us... I apologize for our reactions."   
  
Zelda glared at him, biting her lip.   
  
"No, I apologize... I shouldn't have snuck up like that," Ganondorf chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I seem to have gotten lost... perhaps you could show me to my chamber?"   
  
Impa's eyes opened wide as he said this, suddenly remembering. "Oh, I'm sorry! I was supposed to take you to your chamber after dinner... the princess distracted me. I'm terribly sorry, your majesty."  
  
"No trouble at all," Ganondorf chuckled, stepping out into the hallway to stand on the other side of Zelda from Impa.   
  
"I was just taking the princess to bed... then I'll show you to your room," Impa promised.   
  
"Absolutely no trouble... I'd actually like to have a look around before I retire. Last time I was here, I didn't get a chance to sightsee... perhaps you remember?"  
  
Impa smiled nervously and nodded. "Yes, your majesty..."   
  
"No need for formality. We're old friends, aren't we?" he said, raising an eyebrow at Impa. "Just Ganondorf, Lady Impa."   
  
"Yes..." Impa nodded again, cursing silently as she felt blood rushing into her cheeks and turning them an embarrassed red. "Ganondorf."   
  
They walked down the twisting corridors of the castle, a strange procession. Ganondorf was glancing around amusedly at the things he saw, the valuable golden pieces and the elaborately carved wooden doors. Zelda clung to Impa, honestly scared to be near the man.   
  
She seemed only too glad once they had reached Zelda's bedroom.   
  
"Zelda, I need to go take L- ... Ganondorf to his chamber. I'll be back to put you to bed," Impa instructed.   
  
"I-It's okay... I can do it myself," Zelda said, peeking out from behind her bedroom door meekly.   
  
Ganondorf smiled at her again from where he stood behind Impa, and she shrank back into her room.   
  
"Are you sure?" asked Impa, Zelda's independence a fairly new development.   
  
"Yes... thank you anyway," she said quietly. "G-goodnight, Impa. Goodnight... L-Lord Ganondorf."   
  
"Goodnight, Zelda" Impa replied softly, her voice a bit concerned, but still warm.   
  
"Goodnight, Princess Zelda," Ganondorf echoed in his deep sort of growl.   
  
Zelda's eyes widened considerably and she shut the door quickly.   
  
There was a slight pause before Ganondorf's deep chuckling broke the silence. "Charming girl... very charming... She seems afraid of me."  
  
"Don't be silly," Impa cut in quickly as she motioned for him to follow her down the hallway. "She's only nervous... Just a girl, you know. And you are quite an important person... Please accept an apology for her from me."   
  
"No need to cover for the dear princess. It's understandable," Ganondorf went on, folding his hands behind his back almost smugly. "I seem to intimidate many people... Some intentionally, and some not. Ha!"   
  
Impa chuckled, though she didn't really find it funny.   
  
An awkward silence occurred as they continued down the hall, into a long corridor lined with blue and purple tapestries.   
  
"Impa..."   
  
She looked up as they rounded a corner where the space between torches had widened. It was darker, as the light from outside came in through a large window.   
  
He was glancing at her, his lips frozen in that familiar smile. Those lips... that she had...   
  
Stop it, she thought. He's a king now. It's not going to happen.   
  
"Are you listening to me?" he asked.   
  
"Yes, Lor... Er... Ganondorf," she replied a little bit too quickly.   
  
"I was very pleased to see you when I arrived," he told her honestly. "To tell the whole truth, I was quite dreading this visit... it had been a long time since I'd been here in the castle. But I wanted you to know how pleasant it was to see an old friend upon my arrival."   
  
"Oh, thank you..." Impa smiled back. "It's nice to see you too."   
  
"So you've been here since then?" he went on as they continued down the hallway. The servants had begun lowering the curtains across the windows, and now the only lights in the dim hall came from the torches that spread a warm orange glow every few feet.   
  
They took a left at the next crossroads. "Yes... I'm still the princess's guardian... more of an attendant now, than anything," she explained.   
  
"A job you enjoy?"  
  
"Zelda and I are very close," Impa went on. "She's like a daughter, or a younger sister to me. And his majesty is still very kind to me."   
  
"Hmm."   
  
Ganondorf seemed uninterested now that the subject of King Harkinian had come up. Impa was watching his face out of the corner of her eye, and it almost seemed like he still held contempt for the king.   
  
"So..." Impa urged, nervously trying to change the subject, "What have you been up to all these years?"   
  
"I doubt you'd be interested," Ganondorf waved her off.   
  
"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't," she retorted.   
  
Ganondorf glanced at her out of the corner of his yellow eyes, and smirked. "Well... I've become the true king, of course. I've spent time with my grandmothers studying sorcery... and many long days in the Gerudo Training Grounds to toughen up."   
  
Impa nodded. "I'm sure it's paid off."   
  
"We'll see in due time, I suppose," Ganondorf smiled casually, as they reached the wide double doors of the grand guest bedroom.   
  
"This is where you'll be staying," Impa informed him, having calmed down a bit now that they'd been speaking for a while. She pushed one of the doors open and held it for him politely. "You should have everything that you require... but if there's anything you need during the night, don't hesitate to call for someone."   
  
"I trust I'll be all right," Ganondorf said, setting his hand above hers and propping the door open for himself. "Thank you kindly, Lady Impa."   
  
"My pleasure, Lord Ganondorf," Impa said, nodding curtly. "Sleep well."   
  
She prepared to turn and leave, when she felt him grab her hand by the wrist. She froze and spun around, where he was giving her a stern glance.   
  
"What did I say about addressing me that way?" he asked, quite coldly.   
  
"I... I'm sorry," Impa stammered, giving her hand a light tug.   
  
He held on with an iron grip, squeezing hard enough to cause a slight twinge of pain.   
  
"I never want you to feel you have to address me as a superior, Lady Impa. Never."   
  
"I apologize," she repeated, trying to bring her hand away.   
  
"Understand?" he urged.  
  
"I understand," she said hesitantly.   
  
Ganondorf released her, and she dropped her hand to her side and out of   
  
his reach as quickly as possible.   
  
"Good night," he said, suddenly charming.   
  
Impa's stoic expression had vanished. She stared at him with a noticeable grimace of shock.   
  
"Good night," she said quickly, bowing and then hurrying off down the hall.   
  
He watched her disappear down the corridor with a dark smile on his face.   
  
Retiring into his chamber, the Gerudo Lord had a quick look around at the accommodations prepared for him. A much finer room than he'd had all those years ago... everything here was silk, in rich shades of royal blue and cream. A tapestry with the crescent and star of the Gerudo had even been placed up above the mirror.   
  
She hasn't changed a bit, he mused as he strolled over to the vanity next to the king sized bed, staring at his own face in the mirror. She'd seen it for the first time in ten years... the face of the one she'd been dreaming about all that time.   
  
She had become more beautiful than he'd imagined she would be. Powerful, but with an air of gentleness and grace about her... and so polite.   
  
It was wonderful to see her again after all these years.   
  
Ganondorf unstrapped the cape from around his shoulders and let it drape lazily over the stool near the oak vanity, twisting his neck to crack it and pushing back his always-unruly crimson hair. He made a face in the mirror and smirked again, chuckling quietly to himself as he removed his headpiece and earrings.  
  
Harkinian had trained her well, to show such calm in the face of such emotion. He could feel the tension in the air as he spoke to her. She had been waiting for his return all these years... those fateful two days, ten years ago, had been etched on her memory as they had his.   
  
Ganondorf's thoughts about her borderlined on an obsession. He wanted to live in those two slightly miserable days of his youth, when she'd been there with him. He'd memorized every detail of those days, and the parts that were fuzzy he rewrote.   
  
He grabbed the bottom of his tight undershirt and pulled it, armor and all, over his head, baring his chest for the night. In the dim candlelight, he could still see them quite clearly...   
  
The scars. Dark, vicious scars criss-crossed around his back, chest and shoulders, more difficult to notice on his particular shade of skin, but obvious nonetheless. Even as they were long-healed, he could remember the liquid heat that had seeped out of them, the agonizing pain as they healed up, and the white-hot shame he'd felt, lying there on the cot as his aunt bandaged up her friends' handiwork.   
  
Ganondorf had left out a part of his story to Impa, about his 10 years in the desert before returning to the castle. It was the part where Marya and the other Gerudos, finally out of ideas to keep the rebellious young king in control, had resorted to the last option.  
  
When he refused to train, he was whipped. When he refused to take Gerudo women for himself, he was whipped.   
  
And when his feelings towards the non-Gerudo girl had refused to die, he was whipped.   
  
Finally, nearly beaten to death and without an inch of unwounded skin on his back, he'd given in. He became the god, the Gerudo King he'd never wanted to become...   
  
But in hindsight, now, it was worth it all. It was giving him the chance to finally do everything he wanted to do...   
  
"The only thing I want is enough power to make things the way I want them to be... And if that means I have to become a god, then so be it. I'll be a god if I have to... as long as I get the power to control my own self."  
  
That's what he'd said all those years ago to Impa... she was the only one who had any clue what he was planning. The thoughts of her that had kept him standing up again and again in the face of the harsh brutality of his tribe were finally beginning to surface again.   
  
He'd been given the power, and now it was time for him to step up and take his divinity, his godliness.   
  
The first would be his the next day...   
  
And Impa, who obviously felt the same, would be there to stand by him. She, who believed in who he really was... not this pathetic King of Thieves, who of all things could not rule himself.   
  
But a true king...   
  
He turned from the mirror, a dark smile still embedded on his face.   
  
Soon, he and Impa would be free again.   
  
"He WHAT?!"   
  
"It's true, Lady Impa... we arrested him this morning, trying to sneak in to see the princess."  
  
Impa glared sternly at him, though she wasn't angry with the captain of the guards who had come to speak with her in the soldier's quarters of the castle.   
  
"What inspires a man to break into the castle?" she queried the guard, her eyebrows coming down to make a scowl on her face. "How did he do it?"  
  
"He snuck through the outer gardens to avoid our patrols, then dove into the moat on the south side," the captain informed her, going over the commoner's route in his head. "He swam up the moat to the north and found one of the drainholes that lead from the courtyard to the moat, and he tried to crawl through it, when he got stuck."   
  
"If he'd gotten through..." she mused.   
  
"He'd have been in the inner courtyard, and if he'd been able to pass by the guards in there, he would have reached Princess Zelda," the guard went on.   
  
Impa felt a lurch in her stomach. She let out a little sigh, and shook her head. "Please increase security in the courtyard and around the perimeter of the grounds," she ordered sternly.   
  
"Yes, Lady Impa," the guard saluted, bowing and quickly heading back to his post.   
  
Impa had a seat on one of the cots and crossed her arms fitfully. A breach in castle security was always a serious thing... but it made her even more nervous today, for some reason.   
  
Zelda usually spent her mornings in the beautiful gardens of the castle's courtyard, playing until it was time for lunch. Impa was usually there, keeping a close eye on her.   
  
Today she'd been distracted, only for a moment... Ganondorf had requested her company in the dining hall.   
  
She'd sat by, politely refusing any food offered to her as he ate, and they talked more about the time they'd spent apart.   
  
"What's on your itinerary today?" Ganondorf had asked quite casually, between bites.   
  
"Zelda," Impa had answered softly. "She wishes to go to the market this afternoon, and I was planning on taking her."  
  
"Sounds much better than mine," Ganondorf had said, in a mock pout. "Meetings with Harkinian all morning... but a trip to the market sounds quite refreshing. Any complaints if I join the two of you, Lady Impa?"   
  
She'd paused, wondering what Zelda would have said.   
  
"None whatsoever," Impa had told him.  
  
"Wonderful... I'll meet you in the entranceway on your way out, then, as soon as my meetings are over."   
  
The security breach had happened just then.   
  
It chilled Impa to think of what the man would have done if he HAD reached Zelda in the courtyard... it probably wasn't anything sinister, he'd probably just wanted to speak to the precocious princess who was so famed throughout the Castle Town for her wisdom.   
  
But it was nerve-wracking to think of who could have broken in at that time. And even worse when Impa thought about what would have happened then. Distracted from her duties by a personal visit... What shame!   
  
Impa had vowed to spend the rest of today doing what she was supposed to do, keeping an eye on the princess from the courtyard balcony. Unless she was playing a game with Zelda, the princess usually decided that she felt more grown-up when left alone and requested that Impa leave.   
  
Today, Impa planned to sit on the balcony of the wall up above and watch until her eyes began to hurt or until Zelda was called in for lunch. She would not let her own stupid personal feelings get in the way of her job... she promised herself that.   
  
An hour and a half into her watch, Impa began to lose interest. Sitting on the cornerstone of the rampart that bordered the courtyard, she'd been practicing hand positions with her dagger for a while, but even that could get boring after a while.   
  
She cursed her wavering attention span and turned around again to check on Zelda, who was spying on the throne room through the window at the head of the courtyard. Impa had to smile at the princess' persistence... She seemed determined that Ganondorf was not to be trusted, and was waiting for the Gerudo to step into his meeting with her father.   
  
It wasn't that Ganondorf was untrustworthy... Impa was just put off by the change in his demeanor. The way he'd grabbed her arm last night was so rough, so unlike the boy he'd been ten years ago...   
  
Perhaps, as a king, he was used to using more force than necessary.   
  
Impa kept trying to tell herself that, but there was still a shred of doubt in her. The Sheikah took a deep breath and leaned her head back, gazing at the serene hills that surrounded the castle, and the peaceful grounds below, where more guards than normal were patrolling.   
  
So much was on her mind lately. What she wouldn't give to be able to feel relaxed, like Harkinian seemed to be.   
  
Suddenly, a flash of green from the castle grounds caught her eye. Impa snapped to attention and glanced downward just in time to see a green-clothed small boy, who couldn't have been older than Zelda, ducking behind a bush on the grounds.  
  
Impa's first reflex was to scream for the guards, but something stopped her. She crinkled her nose and watched the boy effortlessly step out from behind the bush and race up to the south side of the grounds, where a hill lead down to the edge of the moat.   
  
He was a blond-haired boy, in a green tunic and shorts with a rather silly-looking green hat on his head... the wear of the Kokiri people. There was even a flash of blue behind him that could have been a fairy.  
  
But how could a Kokiri boy be sneaking into the castle? The Kokiri died if they ever left the forest!   
  
Impa leaned a bit to watch the boy. Part of her couldn't help but root for him... those idiot guards at the castle gates didn't notice a thing when he artfully dived into the moat and began swimming, very slowly, to the north and the other side of the gates.   
  
The Sheikah woman stood up and hurried over to the other side of the corner to watch further. To her shock, the boy climbed out of the moat and stumbled back onto land, heading to the left and towards the drainage hole on the other side of the castle walls... He must have heard about the commoner who tried to get in that way too!   
  
In a few minutes, the boy had disappeared within the drainage hole and reappeared on the other side, INSIDE the castle walls.   
  
A part of her was still urging her to blow the whistle and call the guards on him... But what harm could a little boy do? And it was a bit amusing watching the inattentive guards completely missing the boy as he stealthily snuck around them, using statues, bushes and grape arbors as shields against their vision.   
  
Ducking, dodging and weaving about the long path of bushes near the innermost part of the courtyard, there was a tense moment as the boy accidentally stumbled and was nearly seen by a guard about to circle around. But he remained undetected and finally, slipped through the arches and into the inner courtyard where Zelda was obliviously spying through the window.   
  
Impa's eyes narrowed and she placed one foot on the castle wall in case she would need to leap down and attack the boy if he did anything less than friendly to the princess. But she was hopelessly curious about what a boy his age could possibly be doing sneaking into the castle. And a Kokiri boy no less!   
  
The boy stepped up very slowly, until he was a few yards from the princess. Impa watched carefully as he quietly cleared his throat and let out a shy, "Excuse me..."   
  
Zelda seemed to jump. She spun around quickly, her eyes widening in a slight panic and her gasp audible even across the courtyard. "Who...! What are... how... how did you get past the guards!?"   
  
Impa squeezed the handle of her knife, prepared to leap down and take the boy out if need be.  
  
"I'm sorry!" the boy said quickly, raising his hands. "I d-didn't mean to startle you!"   
  
Zelda was standing there, looking over the boy. She let in another small gasp, and her pupils shrank. "Oh my... is... is that..."   
  
The boy seemed to wait patiently for her response.   
  
"Is that a FAIRY?!" Zelda gaped.   
  
A bright bluish glow appeared from behind the boy, almost shyly. Icy-colored wings, carefully designed like crocheted lace were beating softly behind the glow, and the faint silhouette of a child-like figure attached to the wings was visible within it. "Well I'm not a bumblebee!" the fairy burst out in a high-pitched and childish female voice.   
  
The boy nodded.  
  
Impa leaned in and listened as hard as she could, starting to lose her edginess at the boy's presence... he was innocent enough.   
  
"Then... then..." Zelda yammered excitedly, clasping her hands together. "You wouldn't happen to be from the forest, would you?"   
  
Once again, the boy nodded. He seemed shy, and a bit nervous to be speaking to the princess.   
  
Zelda gasped in pleasant surprise. "Oh WOW!" she gaped. "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! A-and... you wouldn't happen to have the Spiritual Stone of the Forest, would you?"   
  
Impa raised her eyebrows at Zelda's odd question. The Spiritual Stone of the Forest? Why would a mere boy have such a sacred artifact?   
  
It was well known that the leaders of the three races held the three Spiritual Stones, three of the keys to the Sacred Realm. The Deku Tree held the Kokiri's Emerald (the stone of the Forest), Darunia, Big Brother of the Gorons held the Goron's Ruby (the stone of Fire), and King Zora held the Zora's Sapphire (the stone of Water).   
  
Zelda hopped up and down ecstatically, and gazed at the boy hopefully. "That green and shining stone... D-do you have it?"   
  
Sheepishly, and to Impa's great shock, the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a comma-shaped emerald, delicately wrapped in the finest gold. The Kokiri's Emerald!   
  
Zelda's face lit up and she let out a short laugh. "OH WOW! WOW! I was RIGHT! I was RIGHT!"   
  
"Uh... congratulations, your highness!" the boy squeaked nervously, lost for anything else to say.   
  
Now very curious, Impa made a smooth leap from the top of the wall and down into the courtyard, landing in a cat-like kneeling position and sitting up quietly to listen to their conversation.   
  
"Y-you see, I foresaw your coming!" Zelda explained to the boy, beaming from ear to ear. "I had a dream the other night... In that dream, dark clouds were descending over the land of Hyrule, ready to swallow it up... But suddenly, the clouds parted and a light shot out of the forest... A bright light, carrying a green and shining stone and followed by a fairy..."   
  
Impa took in a small breath.   
  
Was Zelda's dream actually a prophecy?   
  
"When I saw your fairy, I thought you might be that person!" Zelda went on, giving the boy a friendly smile. "Oh... OH!" Her face sank. "I-I'm sorry! I was so excited about my dream, I forgot to introduce myself..."  
  
"You're Princess Zelda," the boy interrupted her. "I know..."  
  
"... Silly me. Who else could I be?" Zelda giggled. "And what's your name?"   
  
"Link," the boy said, standing up straight and thumping himself on the chest. "I'm Link, and this is my guardian fairy Navi."  
  
"How do you do?" Navi introduced herself, striking a little curtsy.   
  
"I'm sorry I had to sneak in... B-but I was sent by the Deku Tree to bring you this stone..." Link explained a little shyly, motioning to the priceless emerald in his hand.   
  
"Oh?" Zelda questioned, cocking her head to the side. "Why?"  
  
"The Deku Tree... He's dead," Link went on, his voice dropping a bit.   
  
Zelda's eyes widened. "The Deku Tree... You mean the guardian of the forest? He's DEAD?"   
  
"H-he was cursed, your highness," Navi maintained.   
  
This seemed to mean something very important to Zelda. Her mouth dropped open. "Oh my goodness... Cursed?" she gasped.  
  
"Yes... h-he said he'd been cursed, because he wouldn't give up this stone," Link continued.   
  
"To WHO?" gasped Zelda.  
  
"A Gerudo thief in black armor," Navi recited.   
  
Impa swore she felt her heart stop beating.   
  
Zelda gasped in shock. "Whoa..." she murmured. "Whoa man... whoa man... my dream... it's true... it has to be true..."   
  
"Does that mean something to you, your highness?" asked Link curiously.   
  
"Just Zelda," Zelda corrected absentmindedly, clutching her forehead in her hands. "Oh man... oh man, oh man, oh man..."   
  
Link and Navi glanced at each other, and continued waiting for the princess to speak.  
  
"I knew it... I knew my dream was a prophecy!" Zelda burst out, punching the air enthusiastically. "Which means... OH NO!" she suddenly lost her enthusiasm, and instead looked terrified.   
  
"Means what?" asked Link. "Oh... em... you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..."  
  
"I think something terrible is going to happen here in Hyrule," Zelda squeaked.   
  
Link's eyes widened to match hers. "Uh oh."   
  
"A-and I think it has something to do with the dark clouds in my dream... I think they represent someone too, just like the light represented you," she explained, taking a step backwards from the window and pointing to it. "I think the dark clouds in my dream... I think they represent that man in there."   
  
Link stepped alongside of Zelda, and the two of them peered into the window together.   
  
Impa couldn't see into the window, but she knew exactly what they were looking at.   
  
Ganondorf, stepping into the throne room and bowing to Harkinian.   
  
Impa wanted to yell that she was wrong, she was being stupid, she was acting like a child... but Zelda had had prophetic dreams before, and they usually turned out accurately.   
  
Her heart was pounding to even think of it. She tried to visualize it, and it fit too well... She could see the dark figure stepping into a forest glade, where a tall, sacred tree was resting. She could imagine his hands raising, and the tree suddenly shaking, thick black tendrils of magic surrounding it, seeping into its bark, choking it, and cursing it...   
  
Ganondorf wouldn't have murdered the forest guardian... he wouldn't have. It didn't fit. It didn't fit at all... He wouldn't kill anyone.   
  
She envisioned the awkward teenage boy, blushing furiously as he spoke to her in the courtyard that night.   
  
"My mother was really the only one who treated me like I was a human being and not some kind of sacred object... I don't think she wanted my role to go to my head... and I'm really grateful to her for that. If she wasn't the way she was, I'm afraid of who I'd be. Some kind of power-hungry monster..."  
  
Ganondorf didn't want to be that way. He'd said so himself...   
  
Link and Zelda's conversation was blocked out of Impa's head by her memories, searching into that conversation in this very courtyard ten years ago... What had he said? What made her so sure he'd never do that... What else was there...?   
  
"His name is Ganondorf Dragmire... He's the king of the Gerudo Thieves, who come from the desert in the west," Zelda proclaimed to Link. "He says he swears allegiance to my father... but... I don't think he's being sincere."  
  
He IS being sincere! Impa wanted to yell. He's a good king... he wants what's best for his people! He's loyal... he wouldn't betray an ally, even one he hated as much as Harkinian...   
  
"I think he's planning something terrible. He has such cruel eyes... I think he wants to take over Hyrule."   
  
Impa was ready to yell, but she restrained herself.   
  
There was no proof...   
  
... But... he... said...   
  
  
  
"The only thing I want is enough power to make things the way I want them to be... And if that means I have to become a god, then so be it..."   
  
She felt her voice stolen away.   
  
It was just a conversation between two children... It couldn't be true... He wasn't like that.   
  
He wasn't... like that.   
  
"H-haven't you told anyone?!" Link gasped in utter shock.   
  
"I told my father about my dream, but he didn't believe it was a prophecy..." Zelda sighed. "The only person who believes me is my nanny, Impa."   
  
Impa's face sank sadly. Zelda believed in her... she believed in Impa to discount everything that Impa believed...   
  
"We have to do something!" Link gasped.   
  
"We can stop him!" Zelda smiled determinedly.   
  
Impa's expression became stern. Zelda may have been taking this a little too far... it would look terrible if King Harkinian's daughter approached the King of the Gerudo and accused him of high treason against her father... Even worse if it happened during a time of peace-making!   
  
And... on the odd chance that Zelda was correct in Ganondorf's intentions- Which Impa was sure she was NOT; he was not likely to take kindly to two children making such accusations.   
  
"But... how...?" Zelda said quietly, sinking down into a lump on the steps and crossing her arms in deep thought.   
  
Link shook his head. "That man... Ganondorf? He must be after the rest of the Spiritual Stones, too."   
  
"You're right about that," Zelda pointed out miserably, "But I bet he wants more than that. What he's after must be the Triforce itself..."   
  
Link made an angry expression. "He won't get his hands on it. We'll stop him first."   
  
Zelda suddenly seemed to get an epiphany. She jumped to her feet. "That's it! The Triforce! We'll get the Triforce before Ganondorf does... and we'll use its power to defeat him!"   
  
Impa had to bite her tongue to avoid scolding Zelda. Such a foolish idea... Zelda didn't know what sort of power the Triforce had. She didn't know what she was messing with now...   
  
It had begun as a simple (probably) false accusation... Now Zelda was taking it to the point of actually fighting against Ganondorf.   
  
"Link... you defeated the curse in the Deku Tree, right?" asked Zelda curiously.  
  
"Yes," he nodded.  
  
"A-and you can use a sword?"  
  
"Very well!" Navi piped up.   
  
"I think we should... I think we ought to get the other two Spiritual Stones before Ganondorf does, and use them to get the Triforce and stop his plan!" Zelda said spiritedly.   
  
Link was equally enthused. "You mean, I have to collect the stones for you?"  
  
"For us," Zelda corrected. "I-I know it's a little silly, and we did just meet... but I trust you, Link. Something inside me just tells me that I should."   
  
Link nodded, and Zelda stepped forward and began digging in the pocket of her dress for something. "Agh, I knew I had one..."   
  
"But... um... Zelda?" Link interrupted, as Zelda cried out, "Ah!" and pulled out a sheet of paper and a quill pen.   
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Do you honestly think... I mean, do you think we can do it?"  
  
"I know we can. I'm sure we can. You and me, together we'll save Hyrule... And we won't be alone! Impa believes me. I know she does... She can help. And so can the other races, the keepers of the Spiritual Stones... And my father! Yes, I'll do whatever it takes to make my father believe me! And I'm sure you're a wonderful fighter... You'll stop at nothing to get those other stones!"  
  
"Of course I won't," Link smiled at her, making a mischievous face.   
  
Zelda finally finished writing on the paper and handed it to Link, after folding it neatly in half. "Here... I wrote a letter for you. It should be helpful... Cause it is a Royal Mission, you know."  
  
"Oh, thank you very much!" Link thanked her.   
  
"No, thank you... for believing me... and for coming in to see me!" Zelda winked at him. "I never get to see anyone my own age..."   
  
"It was no problem, Princess!" Link grinned back, giving her a salute.  
  
"Zelda," Zelda corrected. "Now... um... I don't want you to get in trouble, so maybe... OH! Impa!"   
  
Impa had finally been addressed. She bowed to Zelda and her guest, stepping forward to speak to the pair.   
  
"I was wondering when you'd notice me," Impa smiled coolly at her charge. "Who's your friend?"   
  
"Link, this is my nanny Impa," Zelda introduced, smiling proudly.   
  
"H-Hello," Link stuttered, apparently nervous at seeing her. Impa could feel his eyes running up and down her, and stopping for a moment on the knife in her hand...   
  
Impa quickly slipped the knife back into its sheath, having forgot she was wielding it. "You must be the lad from Zelda's dream," she smiled gently, hoping to lessen the boy's apparent fear.   
  
"Y-yes, I guess I am," Link smiled cheesily.   
  
Impa chuckled softly. "The Princess is correct, though, my young friend... She has had many dreams that have turned out to be prophecies. And while I fear she's thinking a bit too far ahead with this one," she paused, giving Zelda a scolding glance, "I cannot turn down a Royal Order... And if she feels our kingdom is in danger, then I will abide by her wishes."   
  
Link nodded quickly, though his expression showed that he knew about half of the words she had used.   
  
"My role in the princess's dream was to teach a song to the boy with the fairy..." Impa began, recalling her and Zelda's repeated conversation about the cryptic dream. "And since you are a friend of the Royal Family now, I feel compelled to do so anyway."  
  
Link nodded and reached back into his backpack to pull out a small painted, handmade clay Ocarina.   
  
"I've used this song to sing Zelda to sleep since she was a baby," she continued. "It is the song of the Royal Family... Zelda's Lullaby."   
  
She placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled- a bit harshly- the tune she had sung for the princess all those years ago, her first night in the castle.   
  
Link echoed it back to her on his Ocarina, also a bit harshly.   
  
"Very good," Impa smiled. "That song is well-known by the king and all his allies... Play it when you need proof of your connections to the Royal Family."   
  
"I understand," Link nodded. "Thank you."   
  
"You're welcome... Now, then. There will be trouble if the guards catch you trying to sneak back out... though I must say, you are quite good at it. Let me escort you back out of the castle this time."   
  
"Thank you very much, ma'am," Link said again. "Goodbye, Zelda..."  
  
"Good luck, Link!" Zelda grinned, waving. "Please come visi-"  
  
She dropped off as Impa threw her a disapproving glance. "Oh..."  
  
"Not so loudly, Zelda," Impa winked at her, with as much cheer as she could muster from her currently dismal mood. "Every guard in the place will hear you."   
  
"Oh! Right!" Zelda giggled.   
  
"The princess may be a bit hasty..."  
  
Impa was speaking without really caring who was listening... but it felt good to get the flurry of thoughts on her mind out and into the open.   
  
Link followed along at her side, glancing around nervously at all of the guards who were glaring at him.   
  
"It's very good of you to accept her request... But please be careful," she went on, setting a strong hand on his shoulder.   
  
Link gazed up at her. "Careful?"   
  
"Yes... Ganondorf is a very powerful man... and while I'm not convinced that he is truly our enemy, he is someone you do not want to anger. Please be very careful, both on your travels and in honoring the princess's request."   
  
"I'll be careful," Link assured her a little skittishly as she lead him through a wooden door concealed in the castle wall.   
  
A small hallway later, they were inside the great hall of the tremendous palace, where Link was distracted by all of the bright decorations and fine statuary.   
  
There was silence as Impa lead Zelda's new friend over the drawbridge and down the path towards the city. She took him on a rushed shortcut through the market, and out of the walls of the city of Hyrule Castle Town entirely.  
  
"E-excuse me..." Link interrupted as she showed no sign of stopping outside the outer drawbridge. "But... um... where are we going?"  
  
"I'm showing you the way to go," Impa smiled calmly. "Or do you wish to find out by yourself?"  
  
"O-Oh no, I'll take all the advice I can get," Link grinned back.   
  
"To the east of this city is Death Mountain," Impa explained, pointing to the conspicuous peak on the horizon, its top encircled by a ring of puffy clouds. "At the foot of that mountain is Kakariko Village. That's the village where I was born and raised," she added, as an afterthought.   
  
"I see..." Link murmured. His fairy, Navi peered her head out from behind the hood of his hat to listen (she'd been hiding from the guards on the way out, a bit nervous at how they would react to her presence).   
  
"Head to Kakariko and get permission to pass through the gate from the guard there... That letter from Zelda shall do nicely," Impa continued. "Then head up the mountain path to Goron City, home of the Goron people. Their leader, Big Brother Darunia, is the one who keeps the Spiritual Stone of Fire."   
  
"Really?" gaped Link, who had apparently been expecting this quest to be much harder. "Oh, thanks!"   
  
"You're very welcome... you're quite a brave boy," she commented. "I truly appreciate you helping Zelda like this... even if she is being a bit childish."  
  
"It's no trouble," he assured her.   
  
"Stop in and visit us again, even if you can't collect the stones... Zelda loves having guests, and I think I've grown a liking to you too."   
  
Link gave his silly little salute again. "I will... thank you, Lady Impa!"   
  
"Good luck... and you're quite welcome," Impa smiled, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a Sheikah orb.   
  
She nodded a farewell and in a smooth motion, threw the orb at the ground where it popped. Her body vanished, and Link was left standing on the field alone.   
  
Impa spent several hours that night tossing and turning, trying in vain to get to sleep. She let out a deep sigh and turned over yet again, her silver hair wrapping itself about her hand and throat as she stared up at the ceiling.   
  
Her usually drafty room was balmy and stuffy. Every tiny ray of light drifting in from outside her curtains seemed to bother her, and an unpleasant chill was running down her spine.   
  
Come now... you're being a bit obsessive, she thought disgustedly, shaking her head to try and change her pattern of thought.   
  
Zelda is just overreacting.   
  
There's no reason to believe any of it is true.   
  
But disturbing visions kept entering her head. Visions of a red-haired Gerudo lord standing over the charred carcass of a small Kokiri boy...   
  
Ridiculous.   
  
But a part of her kept telling her it wasn't so. Her vision of Ganondorf seemed to be fairly idealistic... Fairly hopeful. She hadn't even seen him in 10 years. Why was it so impossible that he, perhaps, really was the way Zelda suspected?  
  
It just didn't FIT. Nice boys like Ganondorf didn't grow up to become bloodthirsty warmongers. He HATED people like that. He'd said so himself...   
  
But it's possible for people to change. Change comes with time, and time is never ceasing... could he really have changed that much?   
  
Why do I keep thinking about this? It's just silly! Impa scolded herself again and again, hoping that if she closed her eyes and concentrated on blanking her mind, it would do just that.   
  
I only knew him for two days... That's not long enough to be a judge of character. That's not long enough to expect to know his entire psychology...   
  
And it's ludicrous to think that I could fall in love with him.   
  
He's said it himself. I know it's the truth. Even if I was... It's forbidden.   
  
He's the King of the Gerudo, and I'm supposed to be Zelda's guardian. I don't have time to think about such petty, selfish things...   
  
There's no reason to be getting all upset. So what if he's not the same person he was? He was just a friend... just someone I met once. He didn't mean that much to me... and he still doesn't.   
  
Impa shook her head, rubbing her groggy red eyes with one hand and sitting up. Her throat was parched, and her mind was still rushing with visions and denials of what she was sure she wasn't feeling.   
  
She sat up and pushed away her blankets, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and standing up, taking a moment to stretch out. Her knee-length nightgown tingled against her legs as she shuffled quietly over to her bedside table, grasping the water pitcher and pouring herself a cup. She drank- it wasn't exactly cold, and tasted like it was a few days old, but it was delicious to the dryness in her mouth.   
  
All was well... Her room was dark and silent, and through the window at the far end she could barely make out the guards around the walls, patrolling the placid castle grounds. Zelda and her father were sleeping soundly. Serene sounds of water being pumped down into the kitchens to wash the night's dishes were slowly, but surely lulling her to sleep. All was well in Hyrule Castle.   
  
Somewhere out there in the world was a small Kokiri boy, wandering towards the mountain in the distance, hoping to find another of the Spiritual Stones when he arrived. Traveling on the princess's whim, for a theory that might be completely false, and a plan that sounded like lunacy...   
  
Impa couldn't help but hope that Link wouldn't find anything to incriminate Ganondorf. She couldn't help but have a little faith that Zelda was simply the victim of an overactive imagination...   
  
A creak sounded from across the room.  
  
Impa nearly tossed her water over her shoulder in shock. She whipped her head up towards the door, where the noise had come from. The door was ajar, only the slightest bit. She was just in time to see a shadow vanish from the thin trail of light leading up the side of the wood.   
  
Her eyes narrowed and she reached for the dagger on her bedside table, whipping it out of its sheath and slinking to the door as fast as she could.   
  
She backed against it and placed her hand on the wide iron ring of a handle, giving it a firm yank and leaping out from behind it, flinging her knife to one side as a warning.   
  
No one was there.   
  
Impa let out a deep sigh. She leaned out into the corridor for a brief moment and looked left, then right. No one in either direction.   
  
Had she been seeing things?   
  
She clenched the handle of her blade a little bit tighter and stepped back into her room, carefully shutting the door and making sure it was latched and locked. She leaned against the back of it and hugged her chest, keeping a firm grip on her dagger.   
  
It was only in Zelda's imagination.   
  
It was only in HER imagination...   
  
Ganondorf smiled and closed his eyes to seal the image in his mind.   
  
The way she'd looked like such a goddess as she sat up and drank... the way the fabric of her nightclothes hugged her perfectly sculpted body... the moonlight on her silver hair...   
  
Soon, she would be free to be his.   
  
He smiled unpleasantly as he shut the door of his bedroom behind him, and a low chuckle rose from the depths of his chest.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
... Scary bastard. Well, I cut this chapter a little shorter than I had planned, because I was having trouble thinking of a bridge to the next part. So... yeah! Well, now Ganondorf's pretty much out of his mind, Zelda's on to his little scheme, Link is in the picture and Impa's having some problems deciding where she stands on the whole issue. In the next chapter, IT ALL GOES DOWN! And Impa will have to make a decision if she will choose her own path into the future, or the way decided by destiny... 


	5. Six: Two Paths

Never My Destiny  
  
The World's First G/I Romance!  
  
by Galaxy Girl  
  
A/N: Thanks to everyone who keeps me inspired for this story. I'm not the best romance author in the world, but I sure am trying my best, and I appreciate the support! Thanks! ^_^   
  
Also, amazing thanks to Ryn-Ryn the Milkshake Queen (Rynnikins), my official plot-bouncer-offer for this story. ^_^ LUV YA SWEETIE!   
  
Also, amazing thanks to Hime no Argh and Zel the Stampede for helping me with some end of the chapter shtuff.   
  
SUPPORT GISOA: GANONDORF/IMPA SHIPPERS OF AMERICA! (And the rest of the world too! We'll take all we can get!)   
  
A Galaxy Girl and Zel the Stampede Organization  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa   
  
CHAPTER SIX: The Two Paths   
  
**********************************************************  
  
"It's kind of you to preempt whatever you were doing this evening for me, Lady Impa," Ganondorf smiled calmly at her.   
  
"It's not a problem... I do what I can to help any guest feel more comfortable," she replied from next to him.   
  
The two of them were on one of their nightly strolls through the castle corridors, nearly two weeks after the day Link had first arrived at the castle.   
  
Ganondorf and Impa had been speaking more frequently since that day. After the day-long meetings were over, he would stop by her personal chambers and ask her to go on a walk with him while Zelda was busy taking her evening lessons. Impa wasn't going to lie and say that she didn't enjoy these walks... they seemed to help put her mind at ease about the Gerudo King.   
  
He didn't seem like such a bad guy at all once you were talking to him for a while. They talked about many things... More stories from the past surfaced. Ganondorf told Impa of his trials in the Gerudo Training Ground, including one embarrassing day when he became trapped inside the dungeon gauntlet and had to be rescued by his aunt. Impa told him about Zelda as a child, not unlike a proud mother would.   
  
Ganondorf had admitted to her that he really didn't feel like he belonged at the castle. He offered her the excuse that since he'd known her when he was younger, he was more comfortable talking to her than with the man he was here to see in the first place.   
  
Impa's fears were all but completely put to rest... Zelda was just a silly child. She had no real knowledge of people yet... her stories about Ganondorf were just a fairy tale. She chided herself over and over again for having gotten so worried over such a stupid thing...  
  
Everything seemed to work out all right. Zelda seemed more at ease, Ganondorf and the king were reaching the agreements they needed, and even Link was all right.   
  
One week ago, Impa had missed Link's return to the castle. According to Zelda, he had snuck back in through the back way while Impa was off somewhere else. He'd had the Goron's Ruby... that meant that he had been successful in his journey to Death Mountain. Impa was proud of him, but didn't get a chance to say so because Zelda had sent him immediately off to Zora's Domain to retrieve the third stone.  
  
All seemed right in the world. Aside from the tiny, mostly squelched fears that she had retained from a few weeks earlier, there was nothing that could have alerted Impa to what was going to happen the very next day.   
  
"So... tomorrow is your last meeting with his majesty?"  
  
"Yes. We're close to an agreement," Ganondorf remarked, "over the trading rights we needed... and a few minor changes in the Gerudo Laws, but other than that, I suppose we're in."   
  
"That's wonderful... Harkinian really is a wonderful king. He'll help you take good care of your people," Impa smiled at him.   
  
Ganondorf nodded back to her, but he didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. He was staring straight ahead of them, almost like he had a preset destination in mind.   
  
"You seem..." Impa began to say as they rounded a corner.   
  
He looked at her.  
  
"... Never mind."  
  
"No, go ahead."  
  
"You seem like you've got something on your mind," Impa commented.   
  
Ganondorf raised an eyebrow and chuckled at her absentmindedly. "Do I?"  
  
"Yes... Is something bothering you?"   
  
"Somewhat."   
  
Impa's face sank. "Oh... it's not about your agreement with King Harkinian, is it? If it is, I could have him called and the two of you could talk it out before..."  
  
"I doubt the king could help," Ganondorf said with a bit of a snort.   
  
Impa drifted off. "...Oh."   
  
"We need to talk."   
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"We need to talk, Impa," Ganondorf said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as they reached the end of the hallway. The corridor ended in an atrium filled with stained glass. The moon had barely begun to rise off in the distance, and it threw a calm blue light on the many glass murals, creating an illusionary rainbow of dancing pictures across the floor and stone walls on the opposite side.   
  
"We?"   
  
"Yes. You and I. Before I leave tomorrow evening... Is now a suitable time?"   
  
Impa felt her heart tightening up in her chest for some reason... But why? "Yes... of course."   
  
Ganondorf stepped away from her side and strolled over to the windows that lined the atrium. Through the translucent colors of the glass, the courtyard down below was visible, faint shadows of the patrolling guards crossing it every so often.   
  
He stood there for a long time, gazing down at the courtyard, until Impa began to wonder if she would need to start the conversation.   
  
Finally, Ganondorf spoke. "You remember ten years ago, correct?"  
  
"Yes," Impa said in a small breath, wondering where this was going.   
  
"When we met... And the night when we were in the courtyard?"   
  
Impa felt her face start to burn as she remembered. "Yes... of course." Why was it so awkward talking about that night with him? He'd been there too, after all.   
  
Ganondorf smiled softly and glanced at her, looking reminiscent of the young man Impa had met that night. "I was hoping you would..."   
  
"Yes, I remember it well."   
  
"You know... that night... was probably the best night of my life so far," Ganondorf said quietly. He didn't sound at all like the powerful king he was. There was something young and weak in his voice... he seemed like he had turned back into his teenage self.   
  
Impa took in a short breath, but didn't speak.   
  
"You know what I've been through... I told you what I would go through back then. I told you how I was trapped in this position... how I was supposedly a god-like king, but not one that could control myself. And I said that I would do anything to gain the power to control my own life."   
  
"I remember," Impa replied, feeling stupid. Was that all she could say?   
  
"And you said you were on my side. That no matter what, you would believe in me. You would support me, no matter what I had to do to meet my goals..."  
  
"I did..."   
  
"I need to know if you'll still be there."   
  
His abrupt need for reassurance caught Impa by surprise. She looked up at him, her face twisted and confused. "Ganondorf..."   
  
"All these years... the memory of you and what you said to me that night is the only thing that's been keeping me going."   
  
"... Excuse me?" Impa gasped, sounding more shocked than she had intended.  
  
"I've been through shit like you wouldn't believe. They tried to break me and bend me to do what they wanted... I stood up to them as long as I could, with only the memory of your words keeping me strong..." Ganondorf was leaning against the window frame, squeezing it until his knuckles turned pale. His face was away from her, but she could see the corners of his eyes, narrow with bitterness like she had never seen them before. "I finally gave in... but only after promising myself that I would NOT let your words fall on me in vain... I swore on everything that I had that I would keep my promise to you. I will become that king, in control of himself... I swore it on my knees that day, Impa. On my knees."  
  
"L-Lord Ganondorf..." Impa gasped.   
  
He turned on her, his face enraged.  
  
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"   
  
She leapt backwards and away from him. He glared at her with emotional eyes that seemed so unlike either version of him she had known... Too complicated for that young man. Too heartfelt for this cold, powerful king.   
  
"I am no lord. I have no control over anything but those pathetic women who made me this way," Ganondorf told her, his voice borderlining on a yell. "I can't control my own fate... I can't control this."  
  
"Stop." Impa said sternly. "Stop it... stop it now."   
  
"I can't stop it. I've been holding this back for years... waiting to see you again. And these past weeks, waiting for a moment when I could speak with you without driving you away."   
  
"Driving me...?" she let out.   
  
"I felt it back then, and I feel it now. I can't get rid of it... those words you said to me... they only meant one thing to me. They meant more to me than anything I've ever been told to believe in..."  
  
"Ganondorf..." Impa said softly. "Stop... please. We can't speak like this... it's not befitting of our positions-"  
  
"I don't give a damn about our positions!" Ganondorf burst out angrily. "We both know how things would be if these positions of ours didn't have any hold over us... Do you think I would have left back then, if I could have stopped it? Do you think you'd still be here, guarding that little girl if you could have stopped it?"   
  
Impa knew what he was getting at. She knew she should tell him to stop again. She knew she should tell him to back down... He was saying in words what she had been thinking since he had returned into her life.   
  
But she didn't tell him to stop.   
  
"I am the lone male Gerudo. You are the last of the Sheikah... Destiny had a hand in both of our fates. Now Destiny keeps us apart..." Ganondorf uttered bitterly.   
  
"Destiny...?" Impa gasped, as he finally treaded on that forbidden ground.   
  
"You can't tell me you don't love me."   
  
There. He'd said it.   
  
Impa's face lost all its color. "Ganondorf..."   
  
"You can't tell me you didn't feel the connection between us all those years ago. You can't tell me that you said those words to me without feeling the same thing that I feel for you... for me."   
  
"It's not like that..." she shook her head slowly.   
  
"It is like that. Though I was... and still am, a pathetic, weak king... a King of Thieves... you couldn't have said those things unless you meant them."   
  
"I only knew you for two days." Impa said realistically, though her face looked torn.   
  
"Say you meant it."   
  
"I did mean it... but I can't say-"  
  
"Then say you love me."  
  
"I can't say that."   
  
"You can. Say you love me."   
  
"Ganondorf... I can't say that."   
  
"Say you love me!" Ganondorf demanded.   
  
"I would, but I CAN'T!" Impa said back, almost too loudly.   
  
Silence.   
  
Impa froze... she did NOT just say that. She couldn't have. It wasn't like her to say something so childish and...  
  
Suddenly, there was a pair of thick arms around her, pulling her in towards a broad, muscular chest. She was pressed against him, and he was hanging his head over her shoulder.  
  
"It's my fault that things are this way... If I hadn't given in... if I wasn't so weak, things wouldn't be this way... we could be together if it weren't for me."   
  
"G-Ganondorf..." Impa stammered, at a loss for what else to say.   
  
"I swear I'll keep that promise, Impa."   
  
Impa felt herself trembling. He was so strong and powerful... this was the same man who could have bruised her a few weeks ago when he grabbed her by the wrist in a fit of fury... but he was acting like a child now, confessing his unrealistic dream to her...   
  
This was wrong. It was wrong on so many levels.   
  
His fingers pressed against the bottom of her chin and lifted her face up to look at him. His eyes were stern and serious. "I swear I won't let you down. I will make up for everything I've been unable to do for you... Things will work out for us."   
  
He kissed her again. Hard, almost forceful, but with an air of gentleness that was like he didn't mean it.   
  
Impa made a gasping noise and pulled away, shoving against him and forcing him to release her. "Ganondorf... stop."   
  
He gazed at her with those stern eyes again. "Why?"   
  
"I admit, I may have feelings for you..." she said very slowly, backing away enough so that he couldn't touch her again.   
  
He smiled softly and closed his eyes. "I knew it... I knew you wouldn't lie to me, Impa..."  
  
She interrupted him, shaking her head. "But part of being an adult is understanding that you can't always have things the way you want..."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I'm saying that we can't do this... regardless of whether you were a powerful king or not."  
  
"We can do whatever we wish. I'll MAKE it so we can-"  
  
"STOP!" Impa demanded.  
  
Ganondorf drifted off and stared at her, looking even more like a child.   
  
"I cannot act on my feelings for you. My duty is to protect Princess Zelda... I can't let anything stop me from that duty."  
  
Ganondorf's eyes narrowed. "You would let a little girl stand in the way of what you want?" he asked, his voice low and unbelieving.   
  
"It's my job, Ganondorf... please try to understand. I have sworn an oath to King Harkinian that I would protect Zelda with my life... I cannot be distracted. Please... try to understand."  
  
Ganondorf didn't look like he had any intention of understanding. His brows narrowed and his face darkened, and he turned away from Impa to stare out of the stained glass window, down into the courtyard again. She saw his fists clenching. A low, hot breath escaping from him, a breath of disgust cut through the awkward silence.   
  
"Harkinian..." he let out within seconds, in a voice full of loathing.   
  
Impa looked at him sternly. "Ganondorf... don't do this."  
  
"Once again... Harkinian stands in my way."   
  
"It's not his fault," Impa said quickly. "Don't be angry with the king. This is my own decision."   
  
Ganondorf didn't speak.   
  
Impa stood in the doorway of the atrium, watching him staring out the window uncomfortably. "Ganondorf... please don't be angry with me or the king. Maybe..."   
  
Wait. Should she really say that?   
  
"... Maybe someday, things may be different. But for now... we need to be patient. All right?"   
  
Ganondorf's head lowered. His face was burning furiously red with shame. Shame at having behaved so disgracefully... he, King of the Gerudo.   
  
"All right...?" she asked softly.   
  
"Perhaps I am... acting a bit childish," he murmured quietly.   
  
Impa gave him a weak smile. "Thank you... for understanding..."   
  
"I meant every single thing I said."   
  
"I know... I'm... very flattered," Impa said softly. "Thank you."   
  
"What was said here will remain a secret," Ganondorf said to her from over his shoulder, with a stern glance.  
  
"Of course."   
  
"Perhaps you should head back to your chamber alone... I need some time to calm down," Ganondorf suggested.   
  
"Of course..." Impa said, bowing just a little bit by force of habit. She caught herself before Ganondorf saw, luckily, and popped back up to a standing position. "Goodnight... Ganondorf."   
  
"Don't lose hope... I still will keep that promise."   
  
"I know you will," Impa said, turning and walking away, briskly at first but then more slowly when she got down the hall.   
  
The day after that began just like a normal day.   
  
Impa had woken up, bathed, dressed, and quickly ran to do the same for Zelda. Today was the final day of Ganondorf's two-week visit to the castle, and today was the all-important final meeting.   
  
Today, Ganondorf and Harkinian would sign their agreement, and the Gerudo would at last belong to the Hylian Alliance again.   
  
Today was the last day that Impa would have to worry about Ganondorf's credibility... the last day she would fear Zelda's prediction coming true.   
  
His words last night stuck with her. She hadn't slept much, and the sleep she had caught had been fitful and full of his voice.   
  
Ganondorf wasn't naïve...   
  
Obviously, he'd been feeling the same thing as Impa. He, too, had been caught up in those moments 10 years ago, those childish, unrealistic moments.   
  
Impa knew, though, he had taken them much more to heart than she had.   
  
"That night... was probably the best night of my life so far."   
  
"Well... good to see you this afternoon, Lord Ganondorf."  
  
"You too, your majesty..."   
  
"You look tired. I trust you rested well last night?"   
  
"No, actually..."  
  
"I'm sorry. Was something prepared inadequately for you?"   
  
"Not really, your majesty. Don't fret about it. It wasn't anything you could have helped."   
  
Harkinian nodded crisply, his thin blond eyebrows creasing low over his eyes as he smoothed out the treaty on the table. He wore his best formal robes and had brought with him a large, overly-fancy quill pen. "Now then... erm... I believe we're ready to sign this afternoon."   
  
"Indeed..." Ganondorf said quietly.   
  
There was something different about him today, Harkinian noticed. His usually stern face had some other kind of look to it. His yellow eyes were narrow and cold, more so than usual, anyway...   
  
He only hoped this wouldn't mean that anything had changed for the treaty.   
  
  
  
He's forced you to think this way, Impa...   
  
He's done something to you...   
  
How could you turn down your own happiness for HIS sake?   
  
I can imagine how you feel, Impa... sick when you see me... knowing that because of me, we can never...   
  
How can he smile at you with those blue eyes when he knows... he's the reason you're trapped here?   
  
I've got to do something... I've got to keep that promise...   
  
She never suspected, until last night, that perhaps there was more to Ganondorf's past than he wanted to admit.   
  
He'd been tortured in the last 10 years. Tortured into accepting his lot in life. Tortured by the Gerudo, his family... his aunt.   
  
Horrible visions entered her mind at the mere thought of it. She could envision that skinny boy from 10 years ago, secured tightly with thick chains, screaming in agony as someone he loved stood behind him, beating him into submission...   
  
She imagined him in his room at night, all alone... Burning, aching for her, wishing that she was with him. She visualized how he must have imagined her back then... How he must have wondered what she was doing, if she remembered him...   
  
Impa did remember him... but not the same way.   
  
It's my fault...   
  
It's my fault he's become this way...   
  
He must be so alone... no wonder he told me everything last night...   
  
If only I could act on my feelings... If only I could return with him, or... or SOMETHING.   
  
I've chosen my path, but... was it the right one?   
  
Zelda... and Ganondorf... My two paths...   
  
"I have no control over anything but those pathetic women who made me this way..."  
  
  
  
"So we've got out our new trading rights... the Gerudo receive full rights to Hyrule Castle and all of her allies, in exchange for open rights with the rest of the Alliance..." Harkinian read off of the many sheets of paper in front of him. His voice was deep and kindly; appreciative, almost. He seemed to read every line like he believed in it and it alone. It sounded sincere when he read it.   
  
Ganondorf didn't notice the tone of his voice. He was busy listening to the words...   
  
The words of this man, whose people killed his mother...   
  
The words of this man, whose people destroyed his own peoples' chance for freedom...   
  
The words of this man, who kept a contract on the only woman Ganondorf had ever loved...   
  
He felt a disgusted knot tightening in his throat as Harkinian went on. How could he speak so freely in front of him? HIM, Lord of the Gerudo? King of Thieves? Didn't he realize that everything was his fault?   
  
Didn't he realize that he was the only thing in Ganondorf's way of happiness?   
  
The words lost their meanings as they reached Ganondorf's ears. He began to zone out, and soon the words were silence to him.   
  
He could only hear her...   
  
  
  
"I can't say that..."   
  
"I would, but I CAN'T!"  
  
"It's not befitting of our positions..."   
  
"I made an oath to Harkinian..."   
  
Impa's words the night before were haunting him. They penetrated every inch of him and stirred up a pulse, a fiery, passionate pulse, one that felt like a combination of hatred and rage and love all at once. He hated how she turned him down, he was enraged at this man who made her do it, and he loved her...   
  
Ganondorf took a deep breath and swallowed, trying to keep his composure as Harkinian continued. He mustn't say anything. He mustn't mess this up... This was the only way... the only key to power for him... The only way he could defy the Gerudo who worshipped him as a god...   
  
If he surrendered power to Harkinian, he would no longer be a false king... They could not worship as a god a man who wasn't even a king...   
  
But there was... his other plan.   
  
Legends he'd heard of the Goddesses' Treasure, the sacred Triforce, and the golden triangles that would grant any wish. Locked away forever in the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm... the Sacred Realm connected to Hyrule through the Temple of Time, sealed with an ancient, divine spell...   
  
He'd begun reading those legends in his spare time back at home in the desert. Legends of the omnipotent Triforce and how it could grant one one's wildest dreams.   
  
Three keys. An emerald, a ruby, and a sapphire.   
  
The Royal Treasure to open the door, the Ocarina of Time.   
  
  
  
He snuck out of the desert a few nights before he was to arrive at the castle, after everyone else in the fortress had gone to sleep. He'd stolen his own horse from the barn and rode out of the valley, far across the field to Kokiri Forest.   
  
It was supposedly a forbidden ground, only tread upon by the forest children. It was easy to bypass... Koume and Kotake had taught him all the counterspells he'd ever need. He slipped past the cursed barrier and found himself before the forest guardian, the immense Deku Tree.   
  
He hadn't any sinister plans in mind that time. He'd only wanted to examine the emerald, search it for clues... see if the legends were true.   
  
Somehow, he'd ended up recreating that creature, the ancient one-eyed spider Gohma. He hadn't meant to poison the tree that way... it was hard for him to remember now. Maybe he did.   
  
Similar later ventures (this time, from the castle) brought him to Death Mountain and Zora's Domain. Almost like something else was controlling him... He'd only come to ask Darunia about the ruby, and to inquire about the sapphire to King Zora... people he had met back in his teenage years. He remembered them well...   
  
Well enough to remember how they'd shunned him. Before he knew what he was doing, he had sealed up the Goron's quarry and resurrected the Dodongo King. He had poisoned the Zora's deity and turned to leave just in time to see him swallow up the small form of Zora's daughter. It felt sweet when he thought of the pain that he'd brought them... Perhaps they understood how he and his people felt now, cursed into an existence of loathing and poverty.   
  
Ganondorf's quest to find the three stones ended as a mere world tour of torture. He returned empty-handed and without any more of an answer to his questions about the Triforce, except that the stones did exist... so the legends were true.   
  
His thoughts fluttered around in his head as he didn't listen to Harkinian speaking.   
  
He remembered the words his mother said on her deathbed about being one king. He remembered the promise he made to Impa... his childhood wish to be powerful enough to control his own fate...   
  
If he surrendered this treaty to Harkinian, he would lose power...   
  
But if he somehow gained the Triforce, he would gain it. He could wish to become a god... a real god, not a fake, weak god like he was now. A real king. One king, who could lead his people...   
  
Not just the Gerudo! All of Hyrule! Ganondorf could become a god and run Hyrule the way he saw fit... There would be no need for Harkinian and his unproductive reign. Ganondorf knew what he was doing... he knew how he could improve this god-forsaken country and end the racism and the poverty of all races, not just the Gerudo.   
  
"Lord Ganondorf?"   
  
Ganondorf snapped to attention. "Your majesty?" he burst out, in a voice that sounded like it had something else on its mind.   
  
"Did you get all that?"   
  
"Yes, your majesty," Ganondorf assured him, in a flat tone.   
  
Harkinian chuckled a bit. "I think the feeling is mutual... don't worry. Today is the last meeting. After today, it'll all be over."   
  
He was too idealistic... it wasn't right. He needed to understand... that night 10 years ago was nothing serious. It was just the frustrations of two lonely teenagers who'd found solace in each other, expressed into tender emotions and a loving embrace. Two days was not long enough to dedicate your life to someone, to pledge your undying love to them, to make them everything important to you...   
  
Why didn't he understand...?   
  
Or was she the one who didn't understand?   
  
Are you supposed to sacrifice your happiness and your dreams for something else? Are you allowed to? Have you any right to?   
  
If happiness finds you... the way Ganondorf found her again... are you allowed to say no?   
  
Was she allowed to say no and destroy the things he believed in, just like that...?  
  
Was she doing the right thing...? Did she say the right thing last night, when he'd confessed everything, and she turned him down for the sake of her duty?   
  
She did the adult thing, the realistic thing... that was the way the world worked. It was okay... she'd done all that had been asked of her. Here she was, with Zelda... Taking care of her... not running off to the desert with a man she'd only known for two days, 10 whole years ago.   
  
  
  
Impa's rhetorical questions echoed in her thoughts as she sat blankly on Zelda's bed, waiting for her charge to finish changing. It was early in the afternoon, and a hazy overcast of gray clouds had slowly rolled in since the morning. Soft breaths of rain were falling around the castle and sprinkling everything in a dewy mist. Zelda had been caught in one of them as she played in the courtyard...  
  
Not played. Waited.   
  
She'd stood in front of the window for an entire two hours, gazing longingly at the stone arch entranceway of the courtyard, as though she was expecting someone to appear.   
  
"Impa..." Zelda said quietly from the other side of the room, as she fixed the sleeves of her overdress.   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Do... do you think Link's coming back today?"   
  
"Link?" Impa was shaken out of her dreamy query. "Zelda... I thought you were over this thing."   
  
"I had another dream last night..."   
  
"Oh," Impa sighed quietly.   
  
She watched Zelda as she tossed her golden hair back over her shoulder and slipped her turban up over her hair, smoothing it out with two hands. Her young face was creased with worry, and her nose was wrinkled, a sure sign that something was bothering her.   
  
"I-I'm still worried," Zelda said quietly as she turned, fidgeting with a loose strand of golden hair beneath her turban. "I can't help it... I just... I'm scared, Impa."   
  
Now was no time to be worried about her problems... Zelda was what mattered now.   
  
Impa smiled soothingly and patted the mattress next to her. "Come sit," she ordered gently. Zelda shuffled across the room and spun, plopping down and leaning against Impa's side.   
  
Her nanny wrapped a strong, warm arm around her and placed her hand on the side of her forehead, playing with the loose strand herself now. "Why are you scared? Today's the last day he'll even be here... tomorrow, everything will be back to normal."   
  
"I don't want him in the alliance," Zelda whimpered. "I don't want him anywhere near me, or Daddy... He's got horrible eyes, Impa. He saw me in the hallway the other day and he smiled at me... and his smile was just terrible. It wasn't a real smile, like when you're happy... it was this awful, sick kind of smile... like... like he knew something I didn't... and those eyes..."   
  
Impa frowned. "Dwelling on it won't help..."   
  
"I don't know why I'm the only one who sees him smile like that..."   
  
She didn't know what to say now.   
  
Was there anything she could say, without being an utter hypocrite?   
  
They sat there for several minutes, Zelda leaning into Impa's warm, motherly arms and Impa, gently stroking her loose strands of hair that refused to stay in place beneath the turban.   
  
"You believe me... right, Impa?"   
  
"Of course I do, sweetheart..." Impa consoled.   
  
Zelda smiled sedately and buried her face in Impa's side, stifling a sniffle. "I just want him to go away... far away..."  
  
"Just be brave for a little while longer," Impa told her. "Here... you know what... dwelling on it really won't help. I say you need to do something to get your mind off of everything."   
  
Zelda mumbled something incoherent, her face still hidden in Impa. Impa laughed softly and pulled her head up with a gentle hand. "What was that?"   
  
"Can I hear a story?" asked Zelda.   
  
"Of course," Impa gave her a silly grin.  
  
Zelda returned a relaxed smile and wiggled in her place to get comfortable. "Oh... oh... um... can you tell me... the... em... another one about Sheik?"   
  
Since she was a small child, Impa had entertained Zelda with a series of old Sheikah legends surrounding an ancient warrior named Sheik... as Impa's mother used to do for her. Sheik was somewhat of a staple in Sheikah communities, as he had slain a legendary demon many years ago and was recognized as a hero of legend.   
  
(A/N: Yes. That Sheik. ^_~ Think of him as the Sheikah Batman.)   
  
  
  
Though she adored the Sheik stories more than any others, Zelda's favorite story was about the legendary ninja destroying a demon with the music from his harp (as Zelda had also been raised knowing how to play the harp... Impa believed she liked to imagine herself slaying demons). Impa related it once again, becoming more spirited in her version as Zelda seemed to relax. She even giggled at a few parts.   
  
There was always something comforting about seeing Zelda happy...   
  
"And that's our treaty."   
  
Harkinian stopped, smiling calmly and clearing his throat. He set down the papers in front of him and glanced up at his guest. "Anything to bring up?"   
  
Ganondorf smiled back at him very calmly. "It sounds quite agreeable... except... one... little point before we sign, majesty..."   
  
It was quite theatrical... but he'd heard this point, and felt a need to call him on it.   
  
"Yes?"   
  
Ganondorf folded his hands in front of him. "Clarify the line about 'no unlawful holding or punishment of the other's subject'."   
  
Harkinian nodded quickly as though to clarify it for himself, and shuffled through the papers before him. "Oh, that... um... let's see..."   
  
There was a moment of rustling papers, and then Harkinian spoke again. "'Under this treaty, neither monarchy of Hyrule nor Gerudo may keep subjects nor citizens of the other captive, nor punish them for breaking a law of the other kingdom.'"   
  
"That's an interesting point," Ganondorf mused, tapping his fingers on the table. "Where did you come up with it?"   
  
"Actually, Lord Ganondorf, I was inspired to prevent another incident like the one that involved your mother..."   
  
Ganondorf's eyes narrowed. "Oh?"   
  
"Yes... Under this treaty, no person of Gerudo alliance may be held captive or punished for breaking a minor Hylian law... and vice versa," Harkinian explained. "Higher lawbreaking, such as murder or treason, would require the monarchy of said prisoner's kingdom to be present at the time of trial..."   
  
Ganondorf remained silent, just staring at the king across the table from him.   
  
Harkinian drifted off, still muttering statutes of the treaty to himself under his breath before he noticed Ganondorf's gaze. He looked up, brushing his beard away from his mouth with one strong hand. "Is there something you'd like to talk about for that part?"   
  
"Is thievery a minor law?" asked Ganondorf pointedly.   
  
"Thievery...? It depends on the item or items stolen, and if violence was used in the crime," Harkinian explained.   
  
Silence pervaded the room once more. Harkinian was watching Ganondorf intently. The Gerudo King let out a deep breath and cracked his knuckles, a nervous habit.   
  
"Is there a problem?" asked Harkinian earnestly, after another awkward moment.   
  
"You realize," Ganondorf began, in a low voice, "That thievery is the tradition of my people?"   
  
"Yes...?" Harkinian replied.   
  
"You realize that I cannot agree to this?"   
  
"Why ever not?" asked Harkinian. "If you could simply hold a bit of control over your people..."   
  
The silence lived only a second longer. It snapped in half as Ganondorf's voice rose.   
  
"Control them? You want me to control my people?"   
  
"Lord Ganondorf, with all due respect-"   
  
"You're a fine man to talk about control of your people," Ganondorf burst out icily, his eyes narrowing deeply at the king. His voice was smooth but venomous, like arsenic and oil. "You who can't stop a public execution of an innocent woman..."   
  
"Lord Ganondorf, please control yourself," Harkinian spoke up assertively. "I did not mean to insult you... please don't take offense. I only meant-"  
  
Ganondorf rose from his chair. "You realize that the way that's written, it's an open gate for your people to continue their oppression?"  
  
"Oppression!?"   
  
"YOU HEARD ME," Ganondorf boomed. "You realize, there are a great many laws in Gerudo society that ARE minor offenses when performed against another Gerudo?! Theft! Battery! What happens when your people come into my valley and decide to use the loophole to their advantage?!"   
  
"There will be no such thing going on," Harkinian assured him. "Lord Ganondorf, please... We'll reword it. Don't lose your temper."   
  
"My temper has been held back for long enough!"   
  
Harkinian was taken aback as Ganondorf rose to his feet.   
  
"In 10 years, nothing's changed! Nothing has changed at all! I can read the look in your eyes like a book... You see me as some kind of child, governing a race of ruthless barbarians... you would see my people confined to that valley forever!"   
  
"I said no such thing," Harkinian replied calmly.   
  
"Exactly! You said no such things to make your people think differently... They, who live richly, in a large city with their fineries and their great king... They who know nothing of the poverty of my people! The suffering of the scores who die of starvation and dehydration in the desert while they relax and live off of others! They who would punish a woman with a small boy waiting for her at home, who only wanted to feed him?!"   
  
Harkinian's eyes narrowed deeply at his accusation. "Ganondorf. Control yourself, or I'll have my guards remove you until you can calm down."   
  
"I AM NOT A CHILD, HARKINIAN!" Ganondorf screamed in his deep, commanding voice. "I WILL NOT BE FED THESE LIES ANYMORE! I WILL NOT STAND BY AND WATCH YOU DESTROY EVERYTHING I'VE SUFFERED FOR!"   
  
"Guards-" Harkinian began, before Ganondorf interrupted him.   
  
"And you... you are keeping something of mine... you've stolen it from me and you've been keeping it here, all these years..."   
  
"What are you talking about?" Harkinian asked, rising from his chair.   
  
"You can't keep her here any longer... she belongs with me, Harkinian! She belongs to me!" Ganondorf threatened in a deep voice. "Impa is mine..."   
  
"Impa?" Harkinian gaped. "Lord Ganondorf, Impa is a devoted old friend of mine..."  
  
"She is your slave. She's nothing more than a servant to you... a servant to keep your precious daughter," he said darkly.   
  
Harkinian stumbled a few steps backwards, nearly tripping over his robes. He reached down to his waist and set his hand on the handle of his sword, sensing that this wasn't an ordinary temper tantrum for Ganondorf. "That is not true... I love Impa like my own daughter."  
  
"Stop talking about her like she's yours!" Ganondorf menaced, stepping towards the king slowly. "She's MINE!"  
  
That pulse was spreading... he felt it throbbing in his mind and his heart, driving him to walk closer to the king. He felt it flowing through his veins, forcing his fists to clench, and building up until he felt he couldn't hold it anymore...   
  
"She's mine... she's MINE... I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HER FROM ME!"   
  
Their eyes met, burning yellow against steadfast blue. Ganondorf's were piercing and menacing, pushed again and again for too many times, finally ready to rise up and take control of what he wanted. Harkinian's were shining beacons... like a fortress he stood, unmoving, prepared to defend himself if necessary.   
  
Suddenly, a flurry of metallic bangs slammed into the room and two Hylian guards were on either side of Ganondorf, pulling their arms into unbreakable holds around both of his, holding him backwards.   
  
"STAND DOWN!" one of them barked in his ear.   
  
"We'll make you if we have to, Lord Ganondorf!" the other, less sure of himself, assured him.   
  
Their steel armor around his arms was too familiar... chains, holding him back as he was beaten...   
  
Suddenly he was 16 years old again, screaming in rage as he was unable to move away from the fate rushing at him unceasingly, unstoppably, threatening his future and himself and everything he'd ever try to become...   
  
He wouldn't hold still this time. He wouldn't break.   
  
"GRAAGGGGHHH!"  
  
A deep scream sounded from his throat, and his palms opened.   
  
Before either guard knew what was happening, they were hit by an immense, pulsating energy that ebbed through their bodies and erupted through the breaks in the metal plates of their armor, acting like a full-body lightning rod. A sickening crackle, a smell like burned clothing, a jolt like they had been struck by lightning stunned them into loosening their grips. As they fell, two steely fists closing around them, one around each of their arms, stopped them.   
  
The sensation returned, stronger, more concentrated, and more meaningful. Their mouths opened in shocked screams, but no sound came out. Their eyes blanked and their bodies shuddered convulsively, amplifying the noise of their armor.   
  
Then, with a huge push in either direction, the guards stumbled and hit the ground, smoking, electrical energy still crackling from their armor, deep red electrical burns across what you could see of their pained faces, and hair singed to a crisp.   
  
Ganondorf paused as silence pervaded the room once again.   
  
Two soldiers lay on either side of him, electrocuted to death...   
  
By his own hands.   
  
He'd taken his first human lives.   
  
Harkinian had lost his composure. He gasped in horror at the far side of the room, too stunned to draw his sword or do anything but stare. "Dear... dear NAYRU... GUARDS! GUAAAARDS!"  
  
Ganondorf was breathing heavily as well, the hair on his body settling back down after casting the electrical spell... everything Koume and Kotake had taught him about that spell finally had meaning.   
  
Was that all it took to kill someone? A squeeze of your fist? Was that all it took to erase someone, to take a life for yourself... to clear your path of those who would obstruct you?   
  
If it was so easy... why had he waited all this time to put it to use?   
  
He looked up at Harkinian, his eyes glittering maniacally. He gave the king a malignant grin and stepped towards him, pressing his palms together and feeling sensations flow through his blood as the crackling, fizzling energy gathered in his hands, waiting to be unleashed at his command.   
  
"Ganondorf! Ganondorf, stop!" Harkinian cried.   
  
"You killed my mother..."   
  
"GANONDORF! I ORDER you to stop!" Harkinian burst out again.   
  
"You enslaved my people..."   
  
The king stumbled backwards and yanked at the sword in its sheath, determined to save his life.   
  
"But I will not allow you to take Impa away from me..." he hissed, close enough to Harkinian to embrace him, cornering him against the wall, leaving his open palms, circuiting with sorcerous electricity just inches from touching him.   
  
"Impa is mine... With her, I will become a god and I will take care of this world the way you never could..."   
  
Harkinian stared into Ganondorf's eyes defiantly. He would not show fear.   
  
My sweet little Zelda...   
  
"You've stood in my way for the last time!"   
  
His palms touched Harkinian's chest.   
  
Impa had only stopped for a moment to clear her throat, when she heard a deep gasp from next to her.   
  
"Be patient, Zelda..."   
  
But the gasping didn't stop. Zelda let in several quick, thin gasps for air, and then there burst from her lungs a terrified scream.   
  
Impa leapt to her feet. "Zelda! What-"  
  
Something was horribly wrong. Her blue eyes were wide open and blank, like her soul had been torn from her body. She was screaming hysterically and shivering, twitching, throwing her arms around her and squeezing her arms with curled fingers, her skin growing deathly pale...   
  
"SWEET DIN!" Impa gaped, leaping towards her. She caught Zelda's limp body in her arms just as the princess's eyes rolled back and she collapsed into a faint, her eyes still wide and black. "ZELDA! ZELDA!"   
  
Impa's heart throbbed wildly in her chest and she felt her stomach tighten when she saw Zelda's expression... she was in pain. Her eyebrows were crinkled down in a worried, agonized glare... she looked terrified. Almost like she was having a waking nightmare...   
  
"Zelda... Zelda..." Impa repeated over and over again, gently shaking the princess's unconscious form. "Zelda... wake up... Zelda... please, oh Nayru, snap out of it..."   
  
There was a tense several minutes as Impa tried desperately to awaken her charge. She leaned in close... her heart was still beating, but she wasn't breathing. Impa laid her down on the bed and tilted her chin back, listening carefully for a breath, a gasp, a cough, anything...   
  
Her wish was granted as Zelda let out a huge gasp, followed by a cough. Her eyes fluttered and immediately regained their normal appearance. She whipped her head back and forth like she was looking for something.   
  
"Zelda!" Impa gasped.   
  
"I-IMPA!" Zelda squealed, clutching onto her arms and squeezing. "I-Impa, it was... it was so horrible... I... I just, I couldn't breathe and I... my head hurt sooo bad and then I saw... I saw him, Impa! I saw him and he was casting a spell and his hands were glowing and he laughed at me! Ganondorf laughed at me! And you weren't there to save me from him and I screamed and I screamed..."   
  
Impa clicked her tongue and gently pushed her down when she tried to sit up. "Lay down... lay down... you must have had a bad dream, sweetie... calm down... breathe, sweetie... Come on Zelda, calm down..."   
  
Zelda lay there for a moment, taking in deep breaths and wiping the tears that flowed freely down her face. "It was so horrible... don't... don't ever let me do that again, Impa, promise!"  
  
Impa's face was creased with worry. "You must have had a bad dream, sweetie..."   
  
"I was awake!" Zelda protested. "I-I was awake and listening to you, then I just like... I couldn't see and I couldn't breathe..."   
  
"It must have been a vision, then," Impa said quietly, stroking Zelda's forehead with two fingers. "Just a little vision, Zelda... Hyrule's princesses have always had them... You've had the others while you were asleep, but this time you were awake... it's gonna be okay, sweetie..."   
  
"It was so scary..." Zelda whimpered again. "I... I don't feel well..."   
  
Impa sat up and rose to her feet. "Zelda, I'm going to get a nurse..."   
  
"N-Nooo! Stay with me!" Zelda gasped, sitting up quickly and stretching out one hand. "Don't leave me, Impa!"   
  
"You need to see a nurse, Zelda... just to be sure it won't happen again, okay?" Impa explained gently.   
  
"Please don't leave me, Impa..." Zelda whispered.   
  
Impa walked briskly back over to her and kneeled. "Be brave for a moment sweetie... I'm going to get you some water, all right? I'll be right back..."  
  
"He'll come to get me!"  
  
"I'd never let him," Impa assured her. "Stay here... don't stand up, all right?"   
  
"... O... okay..." Zelda finally said in a hushed voice, like she was afraid someone would hear.   
  
Impa stood up again and went to the door, turning back to Zelda to smile at her before she left.   
  
This is what happens when she worries too much...   
  
She has nightmares while she's awake...   
  
Impa shook her head sadly as she made her way down the stairs to the main level of the castle, where she would head to the infirmary to find someone for Zelda.   
  
Ganondorf isn't a bad person... he's just a little confused.   
  
She sighed and continued on her way, a million thoughts rushing through her head as she turned left to go through the hallway that led past the meeting room, where he was meeting with the king right now.   
  
She supposed she would have to speak with him again before he left tonight... she couldn't help but feel she'd left him halfway in the conversation last night. Impa wanted to at least give him some closure, so she could be less sure that she'd broken his heart.   
  
Poor guy... she really hoped that once he and his people were part of the alliance, things would go better for them.   
  
The Gerudo were really such beautiful, exotic people... it was a shame that the majority of Hyrule was so racist towards them.   
  
Impa should have known something was horribly, horribly wrong when she saw the door of the meeting room hanging open.   
  
She crinkled her nose as she caught scent of something burning... perhaps the king had started a fire in there? She wondered why... it was the middle of summer, and not cold in the least inside the castle.   
  
As she slipped past the door, she saw small wafts of smoke taking into the air outside the room. Something had been burning inside...   
  
"Your majesty...?" Impa said quietly as she swung inside the doorframe.   
  
She froze.   
  
The meeting room was in shambles. Chairs had been broken off, and the carcasses of several castle guards were strewn about the floor, smoking with charred skin. On the floor lay a few pieces of paper engulfed in flame.   
  
And leaning against the table, pressing another charred body against it and smiling sedately was Ganondorf.   
  
It only took Impa one glance at the golden hair of that body to realize what had happened.   
  
She stumbled backwards, and she felt her stomach give a sickened lurch. Her throat tightened and she gagged, detecting the scent of charred flesh. She took in a heavy gasp and closed her hands over her mouth in utter shock, partially to stop herself from vomiting and partially to stop herself from screaming. "OH GODDESSES..." Impa let out in a horrified squeak into her hands. "OH FARORE..."   
  
Ganondorf heard her squeak. He looked up with a seething glance, like he was ready to slay whoever it was in the doorway. When he saw Impa, his face melted and the anger was gone. He beamed widely and stood up. "Impa... Look, Impa... I've done it..."   
  
"MY GOD..." Impa whispered, leaning back against the corridor wall, feeling her knees shaking like they would give out. "OH MY GOD..."   
  
Ganondorf pulled Harkinian's body up off the table by the front of his robes, and turned it to face Impa. "Look, heart... I've done it... I've freed you from him, Impa..."   
  
Impa had her eyes opened only for a moment. She saw his face that had usually smiled wrenched in a look of agony, deep black and red burns across it and his eyes clouded and dead-looking. She stifled another gag and sunk into half a crumpled ball against the wall, taking deep, difficult breaths and trembling in utter horror.   
  
Ganondorf chuckled under his breath. "He was a fool... He didn't realize that I was serious, Impa... he didn't realize that we were meant to be together... Even when both of us did, after two days together and 10 years apart... I've set you free, Impa! This is it... You no longer owe anything to him."   
  
How could he laugh?! How could he laugh at this?!   
  
She heard a thump and footsteps coming towards her. Impa opened her eyes and blinked through a film of tears that had formed in a few seconds. Ganondorf had appeared next to her, and he reached down and pulled her up by the arm.   
  
She was too stunned to do anything as he pulled her to his chest and embraced her, sighing deeply.   
  
"I've finally done it... I took control. It was just like you said, Impa... I could be a great king... a king in charge of himself... He tried to push me to the ground, and he called in guards... but I'm done being pushed around. I killed them... then I killed him for you. His scream is echoing in my brain... it was the sound that meant that I did it, Impa! I've finally fulfilled my dream..."   
  
Impa was shaking horribly. His arms were comforting and warm, though... and his hands were strong as they squeezed together behind her. Those hands that could murder someone were also so kind to her...   
  
"Now I will be the king, Impa... and I'll change things for us. I'll make it so we can be together... I'll get even more power if I have to, just like I promised you I would..."   
  
His voice was calm, like he'd completely forgotten that he'd just murdered the King of Hyrule. He didn't even seem to care that at this moment, there were probably a hundred or more guards in the barracks alerted to what happened, and probably coming to take him into custody or kill him.   
  
All he cared about was HER.   
  
Impa lifted her arms and placed her palms against him, pushing away. "What... what have you done?!" she gasped out uncontrollably, her voice still shaky with tears. She stumbled as she stepped back, and he didn't force her towards him again.  
  
"I've freed you... I killed Harkinian and you are no longer his slave, Impa..." Ganondorf explained again in a gentle tone.   
  
"NO!" Impa gasped. "You can't... you can't do things like that! Things don't work that way!"   
  
"You told me so, Impa... remember in the courtyard? When you said that you wouldn't stop anything from making you happy?" Ganondorf replied. "I did the same! No longer am I a weak king, Impa! I'm finally worthy of you... I'm a king truly worthy of a queen like you..."   
  
Queen?!  
  
"You are no longer his slave... You are free to be happy with me..." Ganondorf echoed once more, smiling very softly.   
  
"I... I was never his slave!" Impa let out breathlessly, caught up in a million feelings of sorrow and shock and fury. "I OFFERED to serve him, Ganondorf! What have you done...?! Ganondorf, what have you done!?"   
  
Ganondorf's calm face began to fade. "I did it for you, Impa. I did it for our sakes... You can come with me now! We don't have to worry about our positions anymore... I finally have the power!"   
  
"You can't do things this way!" Impa cried. "You can't... you can't hurt other people or KILL other people for the sake of your own happiness!"   
  
"You can't tell me you aren't sick of eating, drinking and breathing to care for that stupid child," Ganondorf let out spitefully, almost like he was wishing Harkinian could still hear him. "You deserve so much better, Impa... you deserve to be happy in your own way. When I first met you all those years ago, I knew that I could make you happy... and now I have... don't you understand?"   
  
"I don't understand..."   
  
She stepped backwards and away from him. "I don't understand this at all... you said you weren't like this! You said you didn't want to be this way! You're not..." she paused. "This isn't the boy I knew all those years ago... he would never... never, do this..."  
  
"That boy is dead, Impa... he was killed the day he broke his promise to you... In his place came a man. And that man has become a king, and this king is opening his hand to you..."   
  
Ganondorf smiled at her, a dark, cruel smile, the kind Zelda had described to Impa as being so scary. He put out a hand, fingers outstretched, waiting for Impa to take it. "Come, Impa... let us be happy together, the way Harkinian would not allow..."   
  
  
  
Two paths.   
  
The path of light, of warmth, of Zelda... Caring for her, coming to fulfill what she had known for 10 years... Her duty, her sworn oath, her promise to Harkinian. Caring for her precious friend, her sister, her daughter, Zelda...   
  
The path of darkness, but of love, of Ganondorf... Standing by a man who had finally become a king after all his yearning... Being truly happy, with the man she'd fallen so hopelessly in love with, even after such a short time...  
  
Behind her was a staircase, at the top of which was Zelda... sitting in a little ball on her bed, hugging her knees pulled up to her chest, scared of a man coming out of the dark to get her and dark clouds consuming Hyrule... She was waiting for Impa to return with a glass of water.   
  
Before her was a hand, behind which was the smiling face of the King of Thieves, the Gerudo Lord... no. He claimed to be the king of all Hyrule now... He'd murdered Harkinian and several guards, but all in the name of his love for Impa... the only thing that had kept him going all these years.   
  
He'd murdered the king...   
  
Impa's mind was a flurry of thoughts. It was only a few precious seconds before she gave her answer and chose her path, but they were crucial seconds.   
  
Duty, or love? Zelda, or Ganondorf? Hyrule, or Gerudo?   
  
Light... or dark...?   
  
Everything she'd ever been taught was leaning against her. Ganondorf had killed for her. He'd MURDERED the KING OF HYRULE. In COLD BLOOD. He'd ASSASSINATED the King of ALL THE PEOPLE IN HYRULE. For her... He'd so believed in her believing in him... he killed for her.   
  
Was that love? Was such a horrible thing actually an expression of love?   
  
The way he'd been talking last night... the things he said now... He saw no right or wrong in his actions. All he could see was Impa and the power he now had, the power to take lives, the power to claim happiness by destroying others and taking revenge...   
  
Destroying others... taking revenge... the way those Hylians had thrown stones at his mother, when he was just a boy...   
  
His soft, tender mother who had wanted him to be gentle...   
  
That wasn't right... That didn't sound like Ganondorf... Ganondorf, who was so devoted to his mother and everything she'd taught him...   
  
Ganondorf, who'd said he didn't want to be a monster...   
  
It all began to come together.   
  
The man who stood before her was not Ganondorf... at least, not the Ganondorf that Impa loved.   
  
Impa loved the tender, awkward, skinny Ganondorf she'd met in the castle hallway 10 years ago. She loved the slouching in his chair, the tapping under the table with his boots, the folding of his napkin at dinner, the tripping as he'd come down the red carpet. She loved his pretty cousin and his tapping her on the back as she sat in the windowsill. She loved his determined yellow eyes and his oversized cape, and the way he kissed her and rested his forehead on her shoulder.   
  
This man was not him... he was cold, temperamental and forceful. He was cruel when he hated someone, and unforgiving... he was entirely too idealistic, and though there were still pieces of what he used to be floating about in his person... he had destroyed it with one wave of his hand, as he ended all those lives.   
  
Over the past two weeks... no, even over the past night, he had changed.   
  
Impa loved Ganondorf Dragmire, Gerudo Prince... she did not love Ganondorf Dragmire, King of Thieves.   
  
The King of Thieves stood before her, his hand outstretched. "Impa... let's go," he said, smiling softly at her.   
  
She took another step back. "No." Impa said coldly.   
  
This seemed to be the very last answer Ganondorf was expecting. His brows crinkled, and he stepped forward, putting out his hand even farther. "Take my hand, Impa."   
  
"No..." she repeated, stepping back again.   
  
"Why won't you take my hand? You said that you loved me..."   
  
Impa took a deep breath and swallowed, staring at him defiantly. "I did once..."   
  
Ganondorf's face melted. His mouth opened shortly. "... what?"   
  
"I did love you, Ganondorf... I loved you when you were a kind, skinny teenage boy who didn't know his place in the world... Not like this. Not like this," she repeated, shaking her head sadly.   
  
Ganondorf stepped towards her again. "You're everything to me, Impa. I already told you, the only reason I'm still myself at all is-"  
  
"You're not yourself!" Impa argued fiercely. "I remember you told me you never wanted to be a monster..."   
  
Ganondorf interrupted her. "... what is that supposed to mean?"   
  
"The Ganondorf I know would never kill a man... Ever..." Impa said quietly, fighting tears in her eyes.   
  
He froze, and his hand slowly lowered.   
  
Impa glared at him, wiping a tear that had escaped against her will. "You can't bring Harkinian back, Ganondorf... you can't change what you've done... but you can face your punishment... Please... stop this. Just... stay here and wait for the guards to come... I promise I'll help you, but please, don't fight... let them take you..."  
  
"I'm done being held back. Come with me, Impa. I am the King now... come with me and be my queen..."  
  
"My duty is to protect Zelda," Impa shot back.   
  
Ganondorf's eyes lit up. "Zelda... you're still hung up on her?! Why don't you understand, Impa?! She is NOTHING anymore! She is Harkinian's heir, and he is dead! I AM THE KING now! I stole his power so that we could be happy!"   
  
"Zelda is Harkinian's heir... and she is now the Queen of Hyrule," Impa said sternly. "And I will protect her with all my power..."   
  
Ganondorf paused. His eyes narrowed at Impa.   
  
"Oh... of course... I see what it is now."  
  
"You see what?" Impa gaped.   
  
"It's that girl... she's afraid of me... and she's filled your head with ideas from her father to turn you against me..."  
  
"That is not true!" Impa shouted. "Keep her out of this! This is MY OWN DECISION."   
  
"Hmmph..." Ganondorf smiled cruelly once more. "Don't worry, Impa... I'll take care of things for us..."   
  
It was like he wasn't even listening. "What do you mean...?" Impa asked quietly, suspiciously.   
  
"The girl is Harkinian's heir... the power has fallen into her hands now... Your responsibility is with her... and I only wish to free you, Impa..."  
  
Impa tried to believe she hadn't heard that. "What?"   
  
"If I am to be the king, I must destroy the last of Harkinian's heirs..." he smiled darkly, stepping towards Impa. "Let me up the stairs, heart... and everything will be all right for the two of us at last."   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
WAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA. DIG THE CLIFFHANGER!!! @_@ Well, that means you'll all have to check back for the next chapter soon! So what's gonna happen now!? Will Impa let Ganondorf whack the princess!? Will they make like Steve McQueen and have a great escape?! WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO LINK?! (I bet you ALL are just RIVETED in suspense.) STAY TUNED, G/I FANS, BECAUSE I'M ABOUT TO QUASH THE POOR MAN'S DREAMS FOREVA!!!   
  
That, and SHEIK shows up in the next chapter! HURRAH! 


	6. Seven: Death's Possession

Never My Destiny  
  
The World's First G/I Romance Fanfiction!  
  
By Galaxy Girl  
  
A/N: Thanks so much for all the good reviews the last few chapters guys. ^_^ Sorry this one took so long, but a lot of important stuff happens during it. It may be a little hard to understand, but I've come up with my own explanation for the Sheik/Zelda thing that allows Sheik to be male AND a separate entity from Zelda!   
  
Incidentally, this is the last chapter in the beginning part of the OoT storyline. Next chapter will be picking up from Adult Link's time period, IE when Ganondorf is the Evil King. How exciting, ne?! I'm looking at either 9 or 10 chapters of this story. Maybe 9 chapters and an epilogue. ^_^   
  
SUPPORT GISOA! GANONDORF/IMPA SHIPPERS OF AMERICA! (and the rest of the world too)  
  
A Galaxy Girl and Zel the Stampede Organization.   
  
http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa   
  
CHAPTER SEVEN: Death's Possession   
  
***************************************************  
  
Ganondorf's eyes were swirling pools of amber, twisted with determination and hiding something new in their depths. Something beyond anger, beyond a thirst for revenge. Something that almost resembled madness.   
  
Impa could see them quite clearly, and thus had no doubt he meant what he had just said.   
  
"You will not harm Zelda," Impa said sternly, stepping out in front of him and placing her arms out to block him from passing her. "You will NOT harm Zelda."   
  
"They trained you well, my sweet Impa," Ganondorf smiled with an air of nonchalance in his voice, as though he did not think of her as a threat. "Always with your mind on your charge… never thinking of your own selfish desires."  
  
His voice became dark as he set his hand on Impa's left elbow, trying to lower it with a gentle force. "Why won't you understand that that philosophy has been made obsolete? You are free. You were like a raven in a cage, Impa… I have opened the doors for you, now you need only face your fears and gather the strength to fly away… Fly away with me."   
  
Impa tossed her arm to force him to remove his hand. "You're the one who doesn't understand. This is my own choice, Ganondorf. I will not let you hurt Zelda. I love her…"  
  
"More than me?" he asked in the same dark voice.   
  
"I told you… you're not the same man I fell in love with," Impa repeated angrily. "You've changed. You've changed beyond where I can see or recognize the man I loved. You've changed beyond where you can see it, too… It's over, Ganondorf."   
  
It was like something within him had shattered.   
  
His cool demeanor had vanished. Three words destroyed the look on his face and the gentle calmness in his voice. Three words seemed to bring to light what she was saying.   
  
There was a short, but awkward moment of silence.   
  
"It's… over?" he repeated.  
  
"It's over."   
  
"It's only just begun!" Ganondorf roared. "This is our beginning! This is the end of Harkinian's time! What's done is done, and the bastard Hylian king is DEAD! You refuse to let go of something that's already slipped away, Impa! I don't understand this!"   
  
"I don't understand YOU!" Impa shot back, backing away from him on her way up to stairs to Zelda.   
  
"DON'T YOU LEAVE ME!" Ganondorf snarled, stepping towards her. "You love me, Impa."  
  
"I don't anymore," she repeated coolly.   
  
"You love me."   
  
"I don't."   
  
"LOVE ME, IMPA!"   
  
"You are no god, Ganondorf. You can't command me to do that," Impa said.   
  
That did it. Ganondorf's expression cracked into an enraged stare, and he stomped towards her so heavily she could feel his footfalls on the ground below her. "I sacrificed everything for you! I sacrificed myself, and my happiness and my entire life for you, Impa! And you tell me it was for NOTHING?! You'll continue to pledge allegiance to everything I was working against?! You'll deny our love to uphold your enslavement to that ignorant BASTARD?!"   
  
He grabbed her around the wrist, squeezing hard, enough to seriously hurt her if he wanted to. "You WILL love me!"   
  
"LET GO!" Impa cried.   
  
Ganondorf pulled her towards him, roughly, without a concern for her pain. She felt her wrist pop the way it did if she'd overextended it, and she cringed with pain. "Ganondorf, let go NOW!"   
  
"Wait until Harkinian's guards come," Ganondorf sneered, turning to look at her. "I'll kill more for you. I'll kill a hundred thousand men or more to make you see, Impa!"   
  
There was a blur in time as Impa flung the palm of her other hand upward, smashing the ball of it into Ganondorf's nose and sending him faltering backwards in agony. "AGH!" he howled, almost flinging her wrist aside and clutching at his broken nose.  
  
Impa yanked her arm away and without so much as a look back, turned and sped towards the stairway to Zelda's chamber.   
  
I've got to get her out of here… he's not himself anymore…  
  
"IMPA!" Ganondorf screamed up the stairs, falling to his knees and staring at the hot blood gathering in his palm. He exhaled quickly and cried out in a broken voice. "Impa, I'm sorry! I lost my temper and-"  
  
A hundred or more footfalls sounded from behind him. Metal clanking against the carpeted stone steps, and then a great cacophony of yelling as Hylian soldiers appeared, having arrived to check the final distress signal of their king.   
  
"IT'S HIM!" the captain shouted, pointing at Ganondorf's kneeling figure. "KILL HIM! HE MURDERED THE KING!"   
  
Ganondorf stood up and wiped the blood on his face away with a sleeve, smiling evilly at the guards that came running down the hallway to attack him.   
  
"I did promise you, Impa…" he said under his breath, as his body filled with charging magical energy.   
  
Zelda looked at Impa with a horrified expression as the latter sped into the room and ran to her. "I-Impa! What's going on?!"  
  
"We need to go, Zelda," Impa said quickly, pulling Zelda to her feet by one arm and pausing to squeeze her shoulders.   
  
"Go where?"  
  
"Away. We have to get out of here and go far away…"  
  
"Wh-why?!" Zelda asked in terror. "It's… It's GANONDORF, isn't it?!" she added a second later, her voice taking on a squeak.   
  
Impa turned Zelda away from her to avoid letting her see the tears filling her eyes. "Go get your spending money, Zelda… I don't know how long we'll have to be gone."   
  
Zelda raced over to her bureau, tripping on the folds of her skirt as she yanked open the drawer second from the top and dug around. She removed an embroidered satchel stuffed thick with Rupees and shook off the socks that had become stuck on it. Speeding back over to Impa, she handed the satchel to her and looked up with big, worried eyes. "Now what?"   
  
Impa took the satchel from her and unzipped it, counting the Rupees inside. Fifty-four, as Zelda had said. It wasn't much, but it was enough to buy some clothes and food for the two of them until she could finalize her plan.  
  
She couldn't even explain the plan herself. All she knew was that she had to get Zelda out of there, now. Harkinian was dead. Ganondorf was ready to kill Zelda and take the throne himself, if Impa didn't do something. And she doubted that she'd have either the physical or emotional strength to fight Ganondorf… especially since it would more than likely be to the death.  
  
Now the two of them would head down to the stables and grab a horse to flee the castle, maybe even the kingdom. They'd find a safe house somewhere. Anywhere Ganondorf could not find them.   
  
A part of Impa was wondering if this was really such a big deal. Was this really the way things had to be? Perhaps Ganondorf was not serious…   
  
But the king was dead. Zelda was no longer safe here in Hyrule.   
  
"Impa! Now what?" repeated Zelda, tugging on one of her leather straps.   
  
Impa snapped out of her moment of thought and looked over at Zelda. "We need to go…"  
  
"But I didn't pack," Zelda told her, cocking her head.  
  
"We don't have time… we need to get out of here NOW, Zelda," Impa explained. "Grab anything you will absolutely NEED, and we're going to go on a little trip…"  
  
"Is Daddy coming too?" asked Zelda worriedly. She climbed up onto her bed and dug about in the covers, pulling out a small ragged doll with hair made of yarn and a smiling face inked on. Impa had given it to her for her fourth birthday, and she couldn't sleep without it.   
  
"N-no," Impa said quietly. "Your daddy can't come with us."  
  
"Why not?" asked Zelda. She handed the doll up to Impa.   
  
"It's a hard thing to explain, sweetie," Impa said gently, taking Zelda's doll and tucking it into the satchel with the money. She reached out and took Zelda by the hand. "Let's go, Zelda."   
  
Impa's heart was pounding wildly as she squeezed Zelda's hand and led her down the stairs and towards the corridor near the meeting room.   
  
What would she see there when they arrived? Ganondorf, perhaps, struck down by a hundred guards? Or the other way around…?   
  
"When we get to the downstairs corridor," Impa said quietly, "I need you to close your eyes and run as fast as you can."  
  
"Why?" asked Zelda.  
  
"Please, just do as I say, honey," Impa pleaded.   
  
"O-okay…" Zelda said uneasily.   
  
Impa peered around the corner and into the downstairs corridor, and felt her stomach do a complete flip-flop. "Oh… GOD…" she said, quietly enough to where she hoped Zelda wouldn't hear.   
  
The corridor was littered with bodies. Charred, blood-spattered bodies of Hylian soldiers, the guards who had come to take Ganondorf into custody. The walls were darkened with char-marks and splatters of blood, and the corridor was dead silent, like a graveyard. Ganondorf himself was nowhere to be seen.   
  
Impa took in a short breath and glanced down at Zelda. "Are your eyes closed?"  
  
"Yes," Zelda said, looking up at Impa to show her that her eyes were tightly closed.   
  
"We're going to run now, sweetie… are you ready?"   
  
"Yes," Zelda said, picking up on the worried tone in Impa's voice.   
  
Impa rushed hurriedly out into the hallway, still clenching Zelda's hand tightly and stepping over the soldiers' bodies as carefully as she could.   
  
"Ouch… Impa, what am I tripping on?" asked Zelda worriedly.   
  
"It's nothing… keep going, Zelda…"   
  
They passed by the open meeting room doors. Impa glanced in quickly, and it looked as it had before. Harkinian's body on the ground, staring towards the sky as it would for eternity, smoke clearing out and the bodies of the other two guards on the other side of the table.   
  
Impa gave one last look at Harkinian and lowered her head, almost in prayer.   
  
Rest well… Father. She thought solemnly. I won't let anything happen to Zelda…   
  
Suddenly, Impa's thoughts were shattered as she felt Zelda's hand disappear from her own and heard a terrified scream from the girl. Impa spun around behind her and leapt backwards. "NO!"   
  
Ganondorf had been concealed just inside the doorway of the meeting room, and he'd snatched Zelda from alongside Impa as they walked by. He held her several feet off the ground by one arm, smiling unpleasantly at Impa. Meanwhile, Zelda had opened her eyes in her terror and was screaming bloody murder at the sight of the bodies around her. "IMPA!! IMPAAAAAAAAAA!" she shrieked in horror.   
  
Impa glared at Ganondorf fearfully. "Oh please… please, Ganondorf… don't hurt her…"  
  
"I must," he spoke simply, placing his other hand around Zelda's throat and holding her up against the wall. Zelda cried out pitifully as Ganondorf tightened his grip around her, cutting off her breathing.   
  
"It's the only way I can make you see exactly what I've done," Ganondorf continued solemnly. "I will prove my love to you, Impa… You will share my happiness with me, even if I have to take this life away from you. You must forget about Harkinian and accept the life I've created for us…"   
  
"Please, don't hurt her… Oh God, Ganondorf, I'm begging you!" Impa said frantically. "Let her breathe! She's just a child, Ganondorf… If you love me… if you've ever loved me, please don't hurt her!"   
  
Zelda kicked and squirmed as hard as she could to escape from Ganondorf's chokehold, but he held it strong. "You know that I love you, Impa… that's why I've done all of this."   
  
"I don't WANT any of this!" Impa screamed at him. "RELEASE HER, NOW! I'm not above attacking you! I already did once, and I'll do it again if you don't let her go!"   
  
Ganondorf gazed at Impa lovingly for a brief second, before turning back to watch Zelda's expression weaken as her face paled. "Just another moment, love… then all this pain will be washed away, and we can finally begin our lifetime together…"  
  
He's gone completely insane, Impa thought quickly, finally deciding to act.   
  
She sped in towards him with a fist raised to hit him in the side of the face, but he saw her coming. He spun towards her and raised his free hand to block her punch, but was too late to stop her from socking him in the gut with her other hand.   
  
Her fist grazed the edge of the metal chest plate he wore and it stung badly, but it apparently had hurt him too. Ganondorf stepped backwards and snarled, throwing back his elbow to knock her away from him.   
  
Luckily, Impa was able to duck down and avoid his hit, but she overbalanced and began to fall backwards.   
  
With the reflexes of a cat, she lifted one leg and connected with a harsh kick to Ganondorf's groin.   
  
Stumbling as he yelled out in pain, Ganondorf pulled his other hand away from Zelda and dropped her to the ground as he collapsed himself. Zelda sat up very slowly, gasping for air and wiping tears of fear out of her eyes.   
  
Impa leapt to her feet. "Zelda, let's go!"   
  
She helped Zelda to her feet but could not stop her from kicking Ganondorf's collapsed body in the shoulder. "YOU'RE A BAD, EVIL MAN!" she screamed angrily.   
  
"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE BRAT!" Ganondorf roared, sitting up and reaching to grab her.   
  
Zelda screamed and Impa yanked her out of his grip before he could snag her. She began to race down the hall. "Zelda, LET'S GO!" she repeated.   
  
  
  
But Zelda only went a few feet before she stared into the meeting room and realized whose body was there. "Daddy… D-DADDY?! DADDY?!" she shrieked.  
  
Impa tried to pull her along, but Zelda ripped out of her grip and raced into the meeting room, collapsing to her knees next to her father's body.   
  
Zelda's face was pale with grief and horror as she examined who in life had been her beloved father. His kind face was burned and pained, and his body was cold… very cold and very stiff. His robes hung unkempt off of him, and out of one of his pockets, a shining blue object was visible.   
  
"Daddy… Daddy… wake up Daddy, please!" Zelda repeated, shaking him by the shoulders, but it soon became apparent that he would not wake up, ever.   
  
The scream she'd heard in her dream had not been a dream. It was her father, screaming his last as his life was wiped from his body by that disgusting man in the hallway. And Zelda… she had been upstairs, helpless to save him… She didn't care if she would have been helpless here too, but her young mind was overflowing with horrible visions of how he could have looked as he died. Did he remember this morning, when she kissed him on the beard before heading off with Impa? The last words she said to him? "See you later, Daddy!"   
  
Zelda burst into helpless tears as she pulled the blue object out of his pocket. An ocarina. No, it was… that Ocarina of Time… the one he'd told her about so many times… This object that was supposedly so powerful just laying here for Ganondorf to get his hands on!   
  
The Princess gazed through tears at her father's face. He would want her to take it, and protect it for him… she could see it.   
  
She slipped the ocarina into her pocket and turned around in time to see Ganondorf standing in the doorway, leering at her threateningly.   
  
"AAAAGGGH!" Zelda shrieked in terror.   
  
"For such an intelligent child," Ganondorf growled viciously, stepping towards her, "You don't seem to realize when YOUR TIME IS UP!"   
  
Suddenly, Ganondorf was grabbed on the shoulder from behind. He turned around and Impa shoved to turn him towards her, leaping up at him and kissing him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to distract him.   
  
Zelda's eyes widened in disgust as she realized what Impa was doing, but she quickly understood why. She jumped to her feet, sniffling in her tears and giving her father one last look before she sped out of the room and down the hallway, past Impa and Ganondorf and down the stairs.   
  
He's still so wonderful to kiss…   
  
  
  
Ganondorf was the one who ended the kiss this time. He pushed her away and stared at her, breathing heavily. "Why do you continue to play these games with me!?" he demanded viciously. "Why do you keep changing your mind?! I want an answer, Impa! Do you love me or not?!"   
  
Impa didn't answer, but stared back at him with her eyes looking torn.   
  
"Answer me!"   
  
"I do," she whispered in a teary voice, now that Zelda had gone.   
  
"Then why do you fight me like this?! Don't you understand, I'm doing this for the two of us?" Ganondorf cried in a confused tone. "If she dies, we can live happily, Impa… you'll no longer be reminded of your life of slavery here! I'll no longer be reminded of the man I hated with all my soul! We can start over together, if you'll only stop fighting me… We can live happily together… we can redo our miserable pasts…"   
  
"We can't," Impa said, shaking her head sadly. "You can't undo the past… You cannot undo the past, no matter what…"   
  
Ganondorf squeezed her arms gently. "Yes, we can…"  
  
"We can't. No one can… I can't undo my vow to Harkinian… and you can't undo your mother's death… And you can't live in those two days we were happy together, Ganondorf… you just can't."   
  
She stepped backwards to pull away from him, though everything she felt told her not to. For the last minute, he'd been… himself, almost.   
  
"Don't leave. Don't leave me. If you love me, you'll stay…" Ganondorf repeated threateningly.   
  
"I can't. For the last time, you're not yourself anymore…" Impa said, pushing his arms away from her.   
  
Ganondorf stared at her in disillusionment as she stepped towards the stairway Zelda had disappeared down a moment earlier.   
  
"Zelda isn't safe here anymore… and I have sworn to keep her safe… So goodbye, Ganondorf," Impa said quietly, wiping away a tear that had fallen out against her will. "I may never see you again, but… I do love you. I just can't stay here with Zelda while you're here."   
  
He didn't move or even say a word as she turned and headed down the stairs after her charge.   
  
The silence lasted for several minutes after the last of her footfalls had finished echoing through the stairwell and evanesced into nothingness. The castle was silent, dead silent, save for the sound of his own breath.   
  
Ganondorf took a step towards the stairwell, but his legs gave out from under him and he dropped to his knees, holding his forehead in both hands and breathing heavier.   
  
The room was spinning. The scent of blood overtook his senses, and the corridor was heating up almost like it was on fire. A cold sweat appeared on his forehead and his hot breath quickened. His pulse seemed to go faster than ever, and his thoughts were encased in a rush of noise. Loud, roaring noise that only he could hear.   
  
"Do you love me?! Answer me!"  
  
"I do…"   
  
"Then why do you fight me like this?! Don't you understand, I'm doing this for the two of us?"  
  
"We can't… we can't live in those two days, Ganondorf…"   
  
Impa…  
  
"AAGGGGH!"  
  
"Oh God, Ganondorf, please don't hurt her…"   
  
"I must…"  
  
"Just a moment longer, love…"   
  
"Ganondorf. Control yourself or I will have my guards remove you until you can calm down."   
  
"You can't keep her here any longer! She's MINE, Harkinian!"   
  
"You can't… you can't do things like that! Things don't work that way!"   
  
Impa…  
  
"Say you meant it."  
  
"I did mean it… but I can't say-"  
  
"Then say you love me."   
  
"I can't say that."   
  
"You can. Say you love me."   
  
"Ganondorf, I can't say that."  
  
"SAY YOU LOVE ME!"  
  
"I would, but I CAN'T!"   
  
Impa…  
  
"YOU'RE A BAD MAN!"   
  
"How DARE you talk to my brother like that, you little punk?"  
  
"Gerudo bastard!"   
  
"Fiend! Heathen!"   
  
"Thief! Thief!"   
  
"Ganondorf… Don't say anything else baby, please…"   
  
"Mama…?"   
  
"You do understand… You're on my side, right?"   
  
"I'm on your side!"   
  
"And you'll always be on my side?"   
  
"Always!"   
  
Impa…   
  
"Always…"   
  
"I do love you, Ganondorf…"   
  
  
  
His breathing erupted into a scream of rage. "IMPAAAAAAAAAAA!"   
  
And that was when Ganondorf first realized, he could never go back.   
  
He stood up and tried to see past the spinning room, down the stairs. He sped down them as fast as he could, chasing a vision no one else could see, of a 16-year old Impa smiling at him and gesturing for him to follow.   
  
"IMPA!" he screamed down the hall as he chased her. "IMPA, I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS TO ME! BRING ME THE GIRL, IMPA! YOU SAID YOU WERE ON MY SIDE! YOU'RE ON MY SIDE, IMPA!"   
  
The hallways were silent and abandoned. Everyone knew what had happened upstairs, and the castle staff had long since hidden away. Eyes watched the Gerudo King as he ran on his way out, and no one wanted to stop him.   
  
"BRING ME THE PRINCESS! I'LL SHOW YOU I CAN DO IT! I CAN CONTROL MYSELF! I WILL NOT BE A HELPLESS GOD! I'LL SHOW YOU IMPA, COME BACK!"   
  
  
  
"Hurry, Zelda!"   
  
Impa quickly mounted the horse, a pure white stallion dressed in the royal colors, the saddlebags already packed with the satchel and the reins already fastened about his lips.   
  
Zelda whimpered and held up her hands, holding as still as a rag doll as Impa grabbed them and lifted the girl into the saddle with her. She leaned back against Impa and sobbed, holding her arms close around her and lowering her head.   
  
"Grab the saddle horn and hold on tight, Zelda," Impa ordered in a gentle voice, pressing her boot against the horse's left side. With a snort and a toss of his head, the stallion turned to the left and carefully backed out of the stables.   
  
Impa spurred the horse with a short cry and soon they were running, down the path from the stables that led back around to the front of the castle. Over the drawbridge and down the hill, past guards who ushered them on hurriedly.   
  
"GET THE PRINCESS TO SAFETY, LADY IMPA! WE'LL TAKE CARE OF THINGS HERE!" the one outside the castle road cried.   
  
"Thank you!" Impa called behind her, reaching up with one hand and pulling the cloth at the top of her armor up around her face. It doubled as a hood, and though Impa knew everyone would recognize the colors of the royal family on the horse's saddle and blanket, she could hope that people would understand that this was serious.   
  
The horse raced down the dirt road towards the castle town, and soon people were turning their heads to see who could be riding from the castle in such a hurry.   
  
"OUT OF THE WAY!" Impa yelled ahead of her.   
  
The sea of townspeople parted with expressions frozen on the horse and his riders, one of whom looked remarkably like Princess Zelda, they thought.   
  
Impa carefully steered the horse around the fountain in the center of town square, and it began to slow down, assuming that the brisk run was over.   
  
"Keep on," she said sternly, patting the horse on the neck. "Keep running!"   
  
Obediently, the horse turned towards the drawbridge exit of the castle down and ran, carefully avoiding slow people and only stopping when realizing that the drawbridge was up.   
  
Impa glared back and forth to the guards standing on either side of it. "Lower the bridge!" she screamed.   
  
"It's nearly dark, Lady Impa, we cannot-" one began lazily.  
  
"This is an emergency! The princess needs to be evacuated!" she yelled at them.   
  
"Evacuated? We heard nothing about an evacuation drill!" the second guard cried to her.  
  
"This isn't a drill!" Impa said shortly, losing her temper. "Lower the bridge as fast as you can!"  
  
"IMPAAA!" Zelda whimpered in a shaky voice, leaning off of the horse on Impa's left. Her head was craned back behind her, and she pointed back behind them where the crowd was being parted once more by a man on a black horse.   
  
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Ganondorf's voice boomed from behind them.   
  
Impa turned only halfway and then began to panic. "LOWER THE BRIDGE!"   
  
"Right away, Lady Impa!" the first guard saluted.   
  
He raced over to a lever on the side of the guard post, shoving down on it with all his might but finding it stuck. His comrade arrived a second later, and together they heaved the lever down and released the cog that held the bridge's chain.   
  
Impa gazed back behind her and caught sight of Ganondorf, now a mere 50 yards away from them. Even from here, she could see it in his eyes… a maniacal, crazed ferocity, glaring at her and the girl she protected as he came closer and closer.   
  
If he caught up with them, he WOULD kill Zelda. And Impa had no idea what he would do to herself.   
  
The drawbridge slammed down with a loud clank, and Impa turned the horse once more and spurred it. "THANK YOU! GO, GO!" she yelled desperately.   
  
The horse whinnied and burst into a full run just before Ganondorf passed the guard post, sneering at the two guards with rage.   
  
  
  
In an explosion of speed, the marble gray of the castle town gave way to the endless stretches of yellow and green that was Hyrule Field. Impa turned the horse to the right and leaned down to streamline them and increase the speed as much as possible.   
  
Zelda was cowered down beneath her, holding onto the horse's neck with one hand on each side and looking around them fearfully, watching the rocks and plants speed by beneath them. Suddenly, her head whipped out to the left and she gasped. "IMPA! STOP!"  
  
"We can't stop, Zelda!" Impa cried at her.   
  
"NO, IMPA! IT'S LINK! HE'S WAITING FOR US!"  
  
Impa sat up and turned around and sure enough, standing just a few feet to the left of where they'd just passed was the familiar Kokiri boy, staring at the speeding horse with a look of confusion and shock.   
  
"ZELDA!?" he yelled to her.   
  
Zelda fumbled around in her pockets for a moment and said, "Impa, lean back!"   
  
Her nanny obliged, and as hard as she could, Zelda flung a shining blue object towards the boy behind them. It sailed with a surprisingly long trajectory until it landed in the moat with a splash. Link whipped around to look at it before turning to watch Impa and Zelda leave, obviously confused.   
  
"What was that, Zelda?" asked Impa curiously as she turned back to face the road.   
  
"The Ocarina of Time," Zelda said in a weak voice. "He'll take care of it for us."  
  
Impa wasn't sure if she would have protested had she known that's what Zelda had given to the boy, but there was little difference in the matter now. "Hold on… we're home free in a little bit, sweetie."   
  
"Let's just run and run until he stops following us," Zelda said, reaching down to clutch the horse's neck again.   
  
Impa nodded the affirmative and gave Zelda a reassuring pat on the back as they continued their escape.   
  
The Gerudo stallion must have softened up in his time in the castle stables, because he had run out of breath not far out of the castle drawbridge.   
  
Ganondorf reined in the horse and narrowed his eyes at the empty distance of the field, no white horse in sight… He'd just exited the gate too fast to see where Impa had gone.   
  
He glared down at his faithful horse and sighed heavily, wishing he had the energy to continue the chase. But to force it would only hurt the animal more, so he instead gave an angry curse. "Agh! I lost her!" he mumbled, not sure himself who he meant by "her".   
  
Turning his head to the right, then the left, he searched desperately for prints, a cloud of dust, anything that could give away where she was headed. He HAD to catch that horse. She was on her way away from him, far away, possibly forever if he didn't catch up to her and make her see she was wrong. Once that girl was dead… Impa would finally see the light.   
  
He brushed a tuft of ruby red hair out of his eyes and made a frustrated grunt. Not a sign of them.   
  
His grunt was echoed by a small gasp from below.   
  
Ganondorf turned to the left and saw for the first time a small boy who couldn't have been more than 10 years old, staring up at him a few yards away. He had blond hair and was dressed in the manner of a Kokiri, complete with a small blue fairy flittering over his shoulder.   
  
"You! Boy! Tell me which way they went!" Ganondorf growled at the boy in desperation. He turned the horse towards the boy and stared him in the eyes.   
  
"Wh-who went which way?" the boy stammered, taking a single step backwards.   
  
"You must have seen the white horse that passed by just now! With a woman and a child riding? Which way did it go?" Ganondorf repeated darkly.   
  
The horse snorted and there was silence. It was obvious that the boy had seen Ganondorf before and was quite intimidated, as his deep blue eyes were locked on Ganondorf's and his mouth was hanging open a bit in his shock. He took a few more steps backwards before finally standing his ground with his hands clenched at his sides. The fairy slipped away behind his hat and disappeared from sight.  
  
Ganondorf glared furiously at the boy's silence and tried to remember where he had seen him before…  
  
Oh yes. That day he first arrived here… out in the courtyard with the princess. This was her little friend.   
  
"Don't disrespect your elders. Answer me, boy!" Ganondorf growled.   
  
The boy did something surprising. He narrowed his eyes right back at Ganondorf, reached behind him and pulled off a small wooden shield. Removing a tiny sword from its sheath beneath where the shield had been, he brandished the weapons at Ganondorf and spoke. "I'm not telling YOU."   
  
  
  
Link had no idea of the risk he had just taken. With Ganondorf in his current mental condition, it would have been quite plausible to the Gerudo King to blow the child to bits or crush him beneath the hooves of his horse, simple as that.  
  
But apparently, he found this funny. Ganondorf smiled unpleasantly and let out a low, heartless, condescending chuckle. "Geh heh heh heh heh…"   
  
"Don't laugh at me!" Link piped up again, glaring up at the Gerudo with a look of venom.  
  
"Link, DON'T!" his fairy cried out from inside his hat.   
  
Ganondorf burst out into laughter at this pathetic child. "I like your attitude, kid," he sneered, grinning unpleasantly at the boy as though he found him a big joke. "You actually think you can protect them from me?"   
  
"I can try!" Link sassed.   
  
"Do you even know who I am?" Ganondorf snarled, the laughter in his voice gone and replaced by a stone cold threat. "I am Ganondorf Dragmire, the Gerudo King of Thieves! I am the greatest sorcerer in the world! And soon…" he smiled once more, raising a hand up off of the reins, palm out towards the boy. "Soon, this entire world will be mine!"   
  
The same electrical pulse built up in Ganondorf's body and spread to his hand, and with an explosion of light and a scream of pain, Link was knocked backwards and away, landing on his face in the dirt a few yards from where he had stood.   
  
  
  
Ganondorf smiled at the boy's prone body and turned his horse back onto the path leading across the field, spurring him on. The horse burst into a full gallop and he rode determinedly into the distance, wishing and praying that that white horse would be just over the hill.   
  
  
  
Link…   
  
Zelda turned from the altar and smiled at him, in his thoughts. In her hands she clutched the very ocarina she'd entrusted to him.   
  
The time was the day before, on her Sunday trip to the Temple of Time with her father. She'd asked to borrow the ocarina as she stood in front of the altar, reading the legend of the Sacred Realm and the Ocarina of Time.   
  
Zelda barely knew what she was doing as she recorded the message, but the thoughts came naturally.   
  
If you're hearing this… I'm not around anymore.   
  
I was afraid Ganondorf would pull something like this. No one but my nanny, Impa believed me… And I've either been killed or I've run off with my father and Impa.   
  
But there's still hope, Link… I know any day now you'll be coming back with the three Spiritual Stones… Which means you can open the Sacred Realm now that you hold this ocarina in your hands!   
  
Go on with the plan like we promised… Stand in front of the altar in the Temple of Time and play this song.   
  
It's up to you now, Link…   
  
  
  
The last note of the Song of Time faded away from the echoing hall, and the three stones on the altar seemed to shine brighter than ever.   
  
"Did you hear that?" Navi squeaked.  
  
"What?" asked Link, lowering the ocarina from his lips.  
  
"I heard… I heard something behind us!" Navi advised.  
  
"I didn't hear anything…" Link murmured.  
  
"Oh, be careful, Link. This is the most important thing we've ever done."   
  
Ethereal voice that may or may not have been figments of his imagination echoed through the halls of the Temple, and the Triforce above the Door of Time shone with a golden glow. Slowly, the door split and parted, sliding into a niche into the wall on both sides, revealing a dark hallway to the tremendous room beyond.   
  
Slowly, Link mounted the steps and made his way into the dark hall, catching a glimpse of a bright beam of light ahead of him, shining on some silver object at the top of another altar in the next room.   
  
"Is this… the Sacred Realm?" asked Link, blinking at the room. "I thought it'd be bigger…"  
  
"This can't be the Sacred Realm," Navi stated, shaking her head. "This room is the gateway… there must be a way for us to get there to find the Triforce."   
  
"I don't see any doors," Link said.   
  
Navi suddenly stopped in midair. "Oh… oh! Wowee, that isn't… is it?"   
  
"Is what?" asked Link.   
  
"Is that… the legendary blade…?"   
  
The fairy fluttered up ahead of Link and into the room, up the altar in the center and towards the silvery object.   
  
It was a fine sword, the point of which was encased in a stone pedestal. The sharpest steel was smithed to make the double-edged blade, and the handle was composed of some kind of fine blue metal. A tiny golden Triforce decorated the center of the flared edges of the hand guard.   
  
"The Master Sword!" Navi whispered in awe.  
  
Link stepped towards the altar himself, examining the blade from a few feet away. He edged closer to it and leaned down with his hands on his knees to check it. "Wow… that's a nice sword…"   
  
"Go ahead and touch it," Navi suggested.  
  
"I'm not gonna touch it. It's not mine!" Link said quickly.  
  
"Maybe it's the way you get to the Sacred Realm?" suggested the fairy.   
  
Link stood up and very slowly, very carefully placed one hand on the handle of the blade. He leapt backwards seconds later, and looked surprised that nothing had actually happened to him. "I… don't know if we should…"  
  
"Just try taking it out… we can always put it back," Navi said reasonably.   
  
Link nodded very quietly and placed his other hand on the blade, tightening his grip. "Just don't blame me if something bad-"  
  
There was the sound of metal on stone, and the base of the altar began to glow blue just as Link was aware that the sword had been removed from the stone.   
  
A high-pitched whirring noise like something spinning sounded in the background, and the ground trembled beneath his feet like something was about to explode. The blue light became blinding, and shot up towards the ceiling, encircling Link and Navi in a swirling, columnar vortex of light.   
  
"… HAPPENNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Link screamed as his body was filled with coursing energy, and his form evanesced into thin air.   
  
The room was silent as a tomb as Ganondorf walked in.   
  
Something told him that following that boy would pay off… and it had indeed. Not only did that boy hold all three of the Spiritual Stones that Ganondorf had read about, but he also held the Ocarina of Time!   
  
Leaving the door wide open behind him… the little fool. And now he'd disappeared somewhere, leaving the Sacred Realm open for the taking.   
  
Ganondorf realized, as he'd ridden back into the castle town, that he'd failed her. He'd promised Impa he could take control of himself, and look what he'd done.   
  
Killing a hundred or more people in a fit of rage. What a disgusting display of weakness.   
  
That's just what his Gerudo subjects would have wanted him to do… steal things. Steal people's lives. He hadn't even the willpower to resist his own anger! No wonder Impa had walked away from him, afraid for his lack of control towards her…   
  
Her words were haunting him. Her voice was haunting him… everything about her was haunting him. It hurt more than anything, more than the pain of his beatings, more than the shame of his position, to know that she was… afraid of him. Afraid of his lack of control… his lack of power…   
  
"I won't let you down again, Impa…" he muttered under his breath as he stood at the center of the altar, gazing down at the stone pedestal in the center of the room. The blade that had been there a moment ago was gone, evanesced into nothingness along with the boy and his fairy.   
  
Where were they? In the Sacred Realm, perhaps? Or maybe they'd been obliterated for touching the sacred blade.   
  
Either way, the one sure ticket into the Sacred Realm was gone. There had to be another way in. A way to make this room disappear and reveal the shining, golden prize beyond.  
  
It was all Ganondorf had left. His life had been shattered into pieces, ruins, all because of his lack of control. The treaty meant nothing. Harkinian was dead. His Gerudo subjects and especially Koume and Kotake would be furious or disgusted at his actions and the shame he'd brought to them. And Impa had run from him.  
  
To him, the golden Triforce was not a piece of the puzzle, but an entirely new puzzle. To gain it would make it all go away… he'd have the power to move into the vacancy left by Harkinian, to unite the Hylians and the Gerudo under one king, as his mother had begged him to do on her deathbed. He'd wish for the power to be a god, like his people wished for him to be… their worship would be no longer false.   
  
And with that power… he would finally gain the power to decide the course of his own life. The power to control his own circumstances… the power to show Impa that he would never harm her. He loved her… he would die for her, he would kill for her, he would steal this endless power to prove it to her. The power to keep his promise…  
  
Now that the Sacred Realm was open, Ganondorf finally had access to that object he'd thirsted after in the even that he couldn't rise up and gain the power he wanted himself.   
  
The divine Triforce was ripe for the taking, somewhere beyond this room. A doorway to the future… his future.   
  
He barely remembered walking into the room before he was there, standing in a sea of pure whiteness.   
  
Ganondorf put a hand to his forehead to help block the blinding light and squinted to try and see what was around him. Very little… a shining walkway had appeared beneath his feet and far ahead of him, floating in midair, was a bright object glowing an unearthly gold.   
  
The Gerudo King burst into a full-fledged run, racing towards the object, paying no mind to anything around him. Not the blinding white light, not the voices echoing around him, the voices of Sages long dead who lived forever in spirit in the realm.   
  
Not to the realm itself, that was suddenly fading into an actual place. Ganondorf was on a long walkway of light, heading towards a stone-silent temple carved of heavenly marble and golden trim. The whiteness vanished altogether, leaving him alone on the path towards the temple, surrounded by blackness.   
  
And not to a very clear voice that spoke to him, directly to him.  
  
"You're not going to try and take that, are you?" an old man's voice spoke, very concisely inside Ganondorf's head.   
  
"You can't stop me! I will make it all my own," Ganondorf yelled back, though he wasn't sure to whom.   
  
"You have no right to it, Gerudo King. Your heart is no longer pure. To touch the sacred Triforce will bring nothing but ruin and despair to this land of Hyrule."   
  
"I don't give a damn about Hyrule," Ganondorf argued. "My heart is strong. My heart IS pure!"  
  
"Where do you get off saying that?" the old man sighed.  
  
"I only want her to love me!" Ganondorf screamed, continuing his ceaseless walk towards the resting place of the Triforce. "I only want the power to control myself!"   
  
"To control yourself… or her?"   
  
Ganondorf stopped suddenly and spun around, swatting an arm to hit anyone behind him. No one was there.   
  
"What do you know?!" he roared.   
  
"I know you will not succeed," the voice continued. "You cannot wish on the Triforce because your heart is not balanced. You will retain only a piece of its power."  
  
"You know nothing," Ganondorf snarled, continuing his hurried race to the Triforce.   
  
"I know nothing for certain, but I can foresee many things," the voice said wisely.   
  
Ganondorf passed beyond the threshold of the great temple, his eyes locked on the golden column shining from floor to ceiling up ahead, within it resting a triangular object. The air within the temple grew cold and still and the whispers of the dead began to pick up, roaring in his brain. But he continued ceaselessly towards the sacred relic.   
  
"If you touch the Triforce, you will gain the power you seek. But not all of it," the voice stated over the roaring whispers. "You will gain but a fraction of its holy strength. The rest will vanish and be lost to you for many years."   
  
Ganondorf slowed several yards from the column and continued his approach at a slower, awed pace. The light was dazzling, more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen.   
  
"You will rise up and take command of everything you want to command… except for two things," the voice warned. "The first is the remainder of the power you seek. The second is the woman who haunts your dreams."   
  
"Shut UP!" Ganondorf cried.   
  
"You will lose every shred of the person you once were. You will become someone—or something—entirely new, but whether human nor demon I cannot say. One shall rise to oppose you from where you least expect it… and if the Sages are reunited, he will triumph over you and you will fall from grace and lose everything."   
  
"You speak of matters which you do not understand," Ganondorf snarled, turning around to yell at the voice once more. "You don't know me! You don't know her! You don't know anything!"   
  
"I, the great Sage of Light, do not understand?" the voice nearly chuckled. "It is you who are ignorant of what you're getting yourself into, King of Thieves. Your lust for power will be your ruin, and the ruin of everything you hold close to you… your people, your woman… your entire world."  
  
"If I'm going to destroy everything," Ganondorf spat, turning back towards the golden light, "You certainly sound very calm about it."   
  
"I'm calm because I know you will fall."   
  
"We'll see," Ganondorf retorted, finally placing his hands on the Triforce.   
  
An electrical, pulsing sensation spread through his hands and up his arms into his body. Ganondorf let out a surprised cry at the suddenness of it all, and very nearly let go of the triangles. With a determined glare, he pulled, trying to dislodge them from their resting place…   
  
Just how did you use them, anyway?   
  
The temple began to rumble and the gold light shone even brighter, almost blinding, enough to make Ganondorf turn away and squint to protect his eyes. The rushing sensation worsened and worsened until he thought he might let go accidentally, but finally, he released the Triforce from the column of light and stumbled backwards.   
  
The voice in the room got even louder and the light shone brighter. Ganondorf turned his back on it so he could at least see what he'd stolen- the three golden triangles, Power, Wisdom and Courage, in his hands… Rather, floating above his hands, circling around and shining with a golden light of their own, a much less intense one.   
  
Ganondorf smiled evilly and stared up to look at the ceiling of the room. "YOU'RE A FOOL, SAGE!" he screamed spitefully at the voice he'd been speaking to that had since faded away. "THE POWER IS ALL MINE! I TOLD YOU I WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO-"  
  
His statement was cut short as two burst of light rocketed out of his hands and away, up through the ceiling of the temple and off to who knew where.   
  
Ganondorf let out a gasp of shock and stared down at his hands. One golden triangle remained, floating over the back of his left hand. The top one. The Triforce of Power.   
  
"NO!" Ganondorf cried, whipping his head up to try and find the other two pieces. The lights were gone, long gone.   
  
A burning sensation spread from his left hand and up through his body. He glanced down at the hand to see the golden triangle steaming almost like it was on fire and sinking down into the back of his hand. He tried his best not to flinch and instead gritted his teeth as it burned its way past his gloves and into his skin, leaving a dark triangular scar as his skin closed around it, healing nearly instantaneously and leaving a dull ache coursing through his veins.   
  
But the ache was welcome… with each throb, he could feel power rushing into him. He could feel his muscles strengthening like steel, his heart racing to keep up, and a feeling within him more powerful than any spell he'd ever spun… but it was permanent.   
  
The power made its way into his head, where visions and memories were flashing a million miles an hour. Impa, Harkinian, Zelda, Link, Milana, Marya, Nabooru, Koume, Kotake… A million voices and a million fragmented thoughts coming up again, roaring until he thought his head would burst.   
  
He collapsed to his hands and knees in surprise when it was suddenly over.   
  
The warm pulse was still spreading through his left hand and all through him. It was wonderful… strong, comforting, the best feeling he'd ever had.   
  
The temple became dead silent and the golden light behind him faded into a black one, jetting up and out of the temple, dousing the light of the shining walkway outside… in fact, dousing all of the light. The temple, everything faded away into that inky blackness.   
  
But Ganondorf didn't even notice. Eyes wide at the sensation and his lips twisted into a fiendish grin, he burst into laughter.  
  
Wild, insane, maniacal laughter.   
  
"So it begins."   
  
Rauru sighed heavily and closed his eyes, sealing the vision of Ganondorf losing his mind into his ancient memories.   
  
"I warned him… I foresaw everything that will happen, if luck is on our side."   
  
The elderly Sage turned, twisting his yellow and burgundy robes around his feet as he gazed at the silhouette suspended in the middle of the air on the other side of the Chamber from him.   
  
"Sleep well, Hero of Time," he said, nodding in Link's direction. "I regret that it will be your responsibility… to clean up after this fool's mistakes."   
  
Impa took a deep breath of cold air and reined in the horse just before he became tangled in another thicket of bushes. "Steady," she said in the calmest voice she could, though her heart was still pounding and aching like anything.   
  
They were beyond Hyrule borders now, in a deep forest before the neighboring territory of Termina.  
  
(A/N: I know some people think Termina is actually an alternate universe, but… my creativity is a bit lacking right now and I can't think of any names for Hyrule's neighboring countries. And Koholint was an island, so don't suggest that. Just… go with it. ^_^;)   
  
"Zelda? You still with me?" Impa asked softly, nudging her charge on the shoulder with one hand.   
  
Suddenly, Zelda lurched forward, emitting a small gasp of pain before toppling over and falling right off the horse.  
  
"Zelda!" Impa cried, backing the horse away and dismounting.   
  
She had fallen face-down in a prickly bush, almost like she had simply fallen asleep and tumbled. The thorns were tearing at her dress and digging into the skin on her arms, and her turban had fallen off, spreading her hair out for more of the wretched things to grab onto.   
  
"Oh Din…" Impa sighed, very gingerly clutching Zelda around the shoulders and lifting her. She squirmed and cried out in pain as her skin and dress ripped away from the thorns, and her hair became caught up in them.   
  
As Impa carefully pulled her out of the bush, Zelda burst into loud wails and clutched onto her. "Impa! Impa!" she sobbed.   
  
"It's all right, sweetie… you can cry if you need to," she assured her.   
  
"I f-fell asleep and… oh, my hand hurts…" Zelda wailed.   
  
Impa lifted her up into her arms and glanced up through the thick foliage of the trees. It was nearly sunset, and soon they would be surrounded by darkness on all sides. She needed to find a clearing in the thorns before they got lost in twilight.   
  
"I think you deserve a break," Impa said to the horse as cheerfully as she could muster. "You too, Zelda." She grabbed the reins and very carefully, ignoring the prickling thorns on her own legs, led him through towards a break in the scrubs she could see up ahead.   
  
"D-do we have to stop here?" asked Zelda worriedly.   
  
"It's almost dark, and we haven't time to keep going, honey," Impa told her, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.   
  
"I-I don't want it to be dark… I wanna go home," Zelda sobbed.   
  
"We can't go home, Zelda…" Impa said sadly. "We need to keep you safe until we decide what to do."   
  
"I don't wanna spend the night out here," Zelda continued, shaking her head childishly and burying her face in Impa's shoulder. "Can we find a house or something? Please?"  
  
"Be brave for me, princess," Impa said. "You need to be brave… we both have to be brave, for everyone in Hyrule."   
  
"For Daddy?"   
  
"Yes… let's be brave for Daddy," she nodded.   
  
In a short while, Impa had built a fire in the center of the small clearing and laid out the horse's blanket to make a more comfortably place to sit for Zelda and herself. The night was dark and very chilly, made even more foreboding by the dark forest around them.   
  
Zelda was crying again, snuggling close to Impa and keeping her arms wrapped around her with an iron grip. Impa sat cross-legged, with one arm over Zelda and the other one absentmindedly playing with a strand of the princess's hair.   
  
"What do you think happened back home?" Zelda asked.   
  
"I don't know, sweetie… Hopefully, the guards arrested Ganondorf and have things under control again," Impa said quietly.   
  
Hopefully, they got him to see what he had done. Hopefully they hadn't killed him on sight. Hopefully, he hadn't massacred them all with a wave of his hand and held no remorse for it.   
  
Impa's mind was focused on one memory. The look in his eyes as he chased them through the marketplace. That torn, wretched, angry, abandoned look. A look of betrayal. A desperate look, the sort of look Impa must have had as she attacked him in the hallway to free Zelda from his murderous grip.   
  
Perhaps her words to him in the hallway fell on deaf ears. Maybe he still didn't understand… Impa loved him, but she also loved Zelda. She loved Harkinian. She could not give them both up for him… She just couldn't.   
  
Did he not understand that he had changed?   
  
She told him he wasn't the same. The warmth in his eyes was gone. His smile was cruel, not happy. He oozed power, a frightening, cold power that she just couldn't accept.   
  
But a part of her still felt guilty. That promise… the promise he made to her, the reason he killed the king and all those people…   
  
Had she really done everything she could to stop it?   
  
Perhaps she was too passive. Would he have done such a thing if she'd spoken up sooner? Informed the king of what had happened in the courtyard that night, ten years ago? Told him of Ganondorf and her mutual feelings?  
  
Perhaps it wouldn't have come down to this. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe Ganondorf could have accepted Harkinian as his king if Harkinian had known about their relationship and approved it. Maybe he could have kept his post as Gerudo King and yet come to live in the castle with them. A big happy family…   
  
Maybe she could have helped to heal those wounds of his, like he'd hallucinated her doing for ten years in his fevered, desperate dreams.   
  
But no matter how long Impa wondered about how it could have been, it didn't ever seem right to her.   
  
No…   
  
Just… no…   
  
There was no way she could ever realistically see it working out any different. Ganondorf, as the only male Gerudo could not renounce his throne. He would not renounce his love, as Impa would not renounce her vow and her love for Zelda… But she did love him. She wanted to help him and be with him so desperately badly she couldn't think straight. If it weren't for Zelda hugging her so tightly and crying in need of reassurance, Impa wasn't sure what would have happened.  
  
If Zelda was never born, if Impa had just been a servant in the castle… perhaps then, she would have considered doing what Ganondorf wanted, breaking her vow to the king to be with him.   
  
But as she'd thought before, her two paths had been laid before her. There was rarely, if ever a middle road. There were always choices, and each choice came with consequences.   
  
She tried not to think about what could be happening back in Hyrule now. One of two things had happened. Either Ganondorf had lost his mind, gone insane in his longing for Impa and the power his people wanted him to have… killed thousands more people in his rage, exerting his revenge on the Hylians who robbed him of himself… He was capable of it, after all.  
  
Or he was dead. Struck down by a multitude of guards, beaten down like his mother before him, stabbed by the very people he hated so deeply.   
  
She didn't want to imagine either scenario. They both seemed too cruel, too horrible for a man who had once been such a sweet, idealistic boy.   
  
Her thoughts echoed in the fire, and she mused that it burned like his yellow eyes had across the marketplace as he realized that she was leaving him and he was going to lose her. She couldn't fathom what could be going on in that head of his or what he had planned.  
  
Impa gazed up at the sky and sighed heavily, searching through the black treetops for stars, the moon, any kind of light from above to give her some reassurance that there was hope. Some kind of sign from the gods that this wasn't all just some sick joke played on the both of them… to taunt them with their fates like this, make them think they could have everything and then send things crashing down around them in pieces.   
  
This wasn't the time to be regretting the past, though. Impa needed to keep her head on straight, for both her and Zelda's sake. She needed to find someway to know about what was happening back in Hyrule before she could decide what to do.   
  
If, as she hoped, Ganondorf had been taken custody, she would bring the princess back and serve as her regent while his trial went under study. It would be difficult, but Impa would use all of her power to block a death penalty and a charge of high treason to the crown against him.   
  
If Ganondorf had been killed, she would do the same… though she prayed he wasn't dead. There was hope for him as long as he was alive.  
  
And if, as she feared above all… If Ganondorf really HAD gone on to kill more people, to massacre the guards and possibly the entire village… if he'd risen up and taken the throne as he had been planning…   
  
Impa didn't want to think about that.   
  
Zelda was watching the fire too, but entirely different thoughts were running through her head.   
  
Even with Impa close by and protecting her… horrible, sick visions were running through her head and she felt hot and sweaty. She clutched the rag doll she'd managed to grab before their escape in her hands and squeezed it, staring at the worn smile on her face and wishing that she could smile. She kept seeing the events of the afternoon replaying over and over again…   
  
Her father's corpse, the blank look in his eyes, the blood on his face and neck and the burns all over his skin…   
  
Ganondorf's frightening eyes, leering at her, speaking in such a calm voice as he squeezed tighter and tighter around her neck…  
  
The west wing corridor, littered with bloody bodies of soldiers, some of them her friends, who had run to her rescue and died gruesomely as their reward…   
  
The dark forest, silent but for the chirping of crickets and the occasional brush of the wind through the trees…  
  
A permanent ache had settled into Zelda's chest and showed no signs of going away. She was terrified. She couldn't place a pinpoint on exactly what, but she was terrified… terrified of being alone, cold, scared out here in the middle of nowhere. Terrified of what could be happening in her homeland, at her castle, to the rest of the guards, Link, the townspeople, her father's friends…   
  
Terrified of that man. Terrified of that horrible, horrible man. His laughter echoed in her thoughts until she thought her head would burst, muffled out by her own frightened whimpers and the ache in her head that came from too much crying.   
  
"I know it's hard for you, sweetie… but you're doing a wonderful job and I'm very proud of you," Impa said calmly, tucking a strand of hair behind Zelda's ear.   
  
"I wanna go home…" Zelda whimpered again.   
  
"You know we can't, Zelda…"  
  
"I-I know, b-but… I just… I wish none of this had happened…" Zelda sobbed. "I wish he had never come. I wish I never met him. I wish he was never born."  
  
"You hate him that much?" Impa asked, her voice sounding a bit forlorn.  
  
"I hate him! I hate him! I hope Link… I hope Link or someone kills him for what he did," Zelda said honestly, wiping her dirty cheeks with the sleeve of her dress.   
  
Impa sighed heavily and leaned down, giving Zelda a kiss on the cheek. "You're so brave, Zelda. We'll be brave together until this all works out…"  
  
"I'm glad you're here, Impa," Zelda whispered.   
  
"I'd never leave you, sweetheart," Impa told her, leaning back on her hands and letting Zelda rest her head in her lap. "Try to get some sleep… we have a long day tomorrow. We'll ride into Termina and maybe get to Clock Town by nightfall."   
  
"Clock Town?" whimpered Zelda.   
  
"Yes… we can use your spending money to get a room at the inn, and eat some hot soup and get you a nice bath," Impa said cheerfully.   
  
"How long will we stay there?"   
  
"As long as we can," Impa told her. "We'll stay as long as we need to until we know what's happened back at home and we know it's safe to go back."   
  
"Okay," Zelda said quietly, leaning down on Impa's lap and closing her eyes through the tears.   
  
Humming Zelda's Lullaby, Impa rubbed her back until she wasn't squirming anymore and then lay back on the ground to get some rest herself.   
  
The most important thing was to keep Zelda hidden away until they could come up with another plan.   
  
It was so wrong, so sad that everything had to turn out this way… That Impa had to imagine him as truly being their enemy, not just a sad, angry man who had turned his back on the world.   
  
Maybe there was still hope for us, and Hyrule…   
  
Or maybe he was never my destiny.   
  
A voice spoke to Zelda in her dreams that night.   
  
/Poor little girl… you're such a pretty little girl, and so brave, too…/  
  
"Who said that?"   
  
/A friend of yours…/  
  
"I-Impa?"  
  
/No, not Impa. Open your eyes, Zelda./  
  
  
  
Zelda opened her eyes and for a moment forgot where she was. She was still lying on Impa's lap and it was still dark outside and the fire was still raging ahead of her, but now Impa was asleep behind her.   
  
"Who's there?" Zelda whispered, sitting up and groggily wiping sleep out of her eyes.   
  
"Over here."   
  
Zelda turned to the left and thought she saw someone standing there. She blinked in disbelief and rubbed her eyes again. No, there was definitely someone there, watching them. "Who are you?"  
  
"Who am I? Oh, I'm sure you know me, Princess."   
  
He was a young Sheikah, who couldn't have been more than 17 or 18 years old. Dressed in navy garments with a white veil over his face and feathery blond hair, his hands wrapped up in bandages and a blood red eye gazing at her from behind the veil. The boy stepped forward and kneeled down in front of her.   
  
"This must be pretty scary for you, Princess… Your nanny is right, you're being very brave. I'm proud of you."   
  
Zelda let out a little gasp and stood up, backing away. "Whoa… no way… you're not…? You can't be…?"   
  
"You don't recognize me?" asked the boy, chuckling under his breath. "It's me. Sheik… Survivor of the Sheikah."   
  
Zelda blinked in shock. "You can't be Sheik!"  
  
He laughed. "Why not?"   
  
"Sheik is… Sheik is just a story. A story that my nanny told me!" Zelda said reasonably, pointing at Impa's sleeping figure.   
  
"Just a story? Oh, come now, Princess… every story has its basis in fact," Sheik said, having a seat on the ground facing the fire. He rubbed his hands together and held them out to the fire. "That's nice and warm…"  
  
"You mean… you're… there was a real Sheik?"  
  
"Of course there was a real Sheik. You think your nanny was lying to you?" Sheik said cheerfully, patting the ground next to him. "Come sit by me. I want to talk to you."   
  
Zelda was wary at first, stepping towards him and even reaching out to touch him. She flicked a finger through his hair, which rustled a bit but Zelda couldn't feel it… her hands seemed to move right through it. Finally, she seemed to buy that this really was the legendary Sheik, and she had a seat next to him by the fire.   
  
"Why are you here?" she asked him curiously.   
  
"I've always tried to help people in need," Sheik told her in a pleasant voice.   
  
"Are you a ghost?" she went on. "I mean… you're not… alive, are you?"   
  
"No. I'm not alive," Sheik said solemnly. "I've been dead for several centuries. It's like you're talking to a shadow. My shadow… that's been wandering the world for all these years."   
  
"But don't you have somewhere to go? Like… to Heaven, or something?" asked Zelda. "To be with your family?"   
  
"I like it here, rather," Sheik told her, reaching over to tousle her hair playfully. "And I have unfinished business."   
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I died without finishing what I needed to," Sheik told her, "And I've been wandering ever since to find out what I needed to do."   
  
"I'm sorry… I wish I could help you…" Zelda said quietly, hugging her knees in towards her chest.   
  
"Actually, I'm here to help you."   
  
Zelda looked at him quizzically, and he spoke again. "You know that the Sheikah have always been the guardians of the Royal Family, Princess?"   
  
"Yes…" Zelda nodded. "My nanny is a Sheikah."   
  
"Well," Sheik said, "When I was alive, when I was young, I was the guardian of the princess of Hyrule. Just like you. We were very close friends and I wanted more than anything to keep her safe… like your nanny does for you."  
  
Zelda nodded again.   
  
"Well one day, while we were out traveling, bandits attacked our wagon," Sheik explained. "They recognized the princess and fired arrows at her. I tried my best to protect her, but I was unable to stop them. Our wagon caught fire and I rushed in to save her, but I was too late… I was burned badly in the fire and the princess was killed."   
  
Zelda frowned. "That's sad…"   
  
Sheik lifted up the edge of his veil to reveal bright pink scarred skin all over the left side of his face. "I became a Sheikah hero after that to try and make up for my failure… But I was always regretful that I couldn't save the princess. That's why I want to protect you, Zelda… I want to make up for my mistake back then."   
  
"B-but how will you do that?" she asked curiously.   
  
Sheik smiled at her. "Heh… You're such a pretty little girl, Zelda. Everyone will recognize you if you continue into town tomorrow… and that could be very dangerous. I want to help to disguise you to hide you from the evil that's hunting you."   
  
"But how will you do that?" Zelda repeated.   
  
"Magic," Sheik said in a mock mysterious tone.   
  
Zelda cocked her head to the side. "Huh?"  
  
"You know you have magic," Sheik told her, reaching out and lifting up her left hand. "You've inherited a piece of the Triforce, as the Princess of Hyrule. You have magic within you, Zelda… and if you use your magic with the rest of mine, perhaps we could work out something of a disguise…"  
  
Zelda studied the triangular mark on the back of her hand, having never noticed it until this minute. "You mean… a magic disguise?"  
  
"Yes," Sheik nodded. "If you take my soul into your body with your magic… you could become me."   
  
Zelda's eyes widened. "I could turn into you?"   
  
"Something like that, yes," Sheik smiled behind his veil.   
  
Zelda made an odd face. "But you're a boy!"   
  
Sheik laughed warmly. "Yes… but no one would look for the Princess of Hyrule as a boy, would they?"   
  
"But would I be stuck that way?" asked Zelda worriedly.   
  
"No, you could turn back whenever you wanted," Sheik explained. "But you know, if you take my soul within you… I'd be able to speak with you inside your head." He tapped her on the forehead playfully. "Would that scare you?"  
  
"Nah," Zelda shrugged. "I already have visions all the time… and those are scarier than you. You're nice."   
  
"Heh," Sheik smiled at her again, patting her on the shoulder. "You're such a sweet girl, Zelda… You remind me a lot of my princess… but then again, she was your great-great-great-great aunt. I'd be happy to give you my soul to protect yourself."   
  
Zelda smiled at him. "I'm not scared anymore now that you and Impa will be protecting me."   
  
"It would be an honor, Princess," Sheik bowed, extending his left hand towards her.   
  
Zelda took his hand in hers and there was a flash of golden light out of nowhere. She blinked once and Sheik was gone, as though he'd vanished into thin air.   
  
But something was different now. The night was less cold, the forest was less dark, the visions in her head were calm now and replaced by a warm, comforting voice.   
  
/See? That was painless, wasn't it?/  
  
Yeah… that wasn't bad at all. Are you a part of me now?  
  
/Yes. I'll be here whenever you need me, Zelda. All you have to do is wish for me to come and I'll appear./  
  
What do I tell Impa about all this?   
  
/I think she'll understand… tomorrow, I'll explain everything to her for us, all right?/  
  
Okay… thank you, Sheik. I always have believed in you… you're my favorite story.   
  
/Heh… thank you, Princess. I'm honored./   
  
  
  
There was no telling whether Zelda had really seen the ghost of an ancient Sheikah warrior or just a fevered dream made real by the stress in her mind.   
  
But either way, the next evening a Sheikah woman and a young Sheikah boy rode into Clock Town together and reserved a room at the inn.   
  
And so it went for seven years… Impa and Zelda (often in disguise as Sheik) rode across the continent together, constantly hearing news about the tragedy unfolding in the Kingdom of Hyrule. King murdered… Princess vanished into thin air… Capital destroyed, and people enslaved by an Evil King…   
  
No longer a Gerudo Prince. No longer a King of Thieves…  
  
But an Evil King.   
  
But soon would come an awakening. An awakening of a familiar boy, who had grown into a man…   
  
They rode back towards Hyrule for what to Zelda, would be a method of finally regaining her throne and her kingdom from the clutches of the Evil King…  
  
And what for Impa would be the final seal on the last chapter of their story together.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Wow. That's the most serious chapter I've ever written. O_o Okay, huge thanks to my beta Ryn for helping me plot out my Zelda/Sheik theory.   
  
To sum that up, basically we've got a "Birdy the Mighty" thing going on. Zelda and Sheik share her body and though Zelda is always in control, she can pick up on Sheik's memories and thought patterns to do her Exposition!Ninja duties.   
  
And SHEIK. IS. MALE.   
  
Now, of course, it's really up to you to decide if Sheik is really a ghost or if Zelda's gone a bit nuts after seeing dear old dead dad.   
  
And just to confirm it, Ganondorf REALLY IS INSANE NOW. He regained his sanity a little bit in this chapter for that last conversation with Impa, but after he got the Triforce he completely lost his mind.   
  
ARIGHT! Thanks for reading this far and next chapter will take place in the New Hyrule, ruled over by a psychopathic Ganondorf. But I wonder what he'll do when his ex comes back to town, eh? Stay tuned!  
  
Oh, and if this depresses you, go read "Hey, OCARINA!" for my comedic take on the events of this chapter.   
  
::GG's Shameless Self Advertisement sign drops from the ceiling and flashes:: 


	7. Eight: Under Darkness

Never My Destiny  
  
The World's First (Serious) G/I Fic!  
  
By Galaxy Girl  
  
A/N: I'm on a roll on this one. ;; hehehehee… once again, thanks a million times over for the wonderful reviews. I'll keep working my hardest on this story all the way until I wrap it up!   
  
Ultra super thank you to Ryn-Ryn the Milkshake Queen and The Girlie Gyarados (AKA Tegu-sama), my two plot-bouncer-offers for this story. NMD couldn't exist without people like Teg and Ryn to help me out! Thanks a million guys!   
  
Anyway! As I said last time, this chapter takes place seven years after the last one, which is when Adult Link awakens from the Sacred Realm. It makes Impa and Ganondorf both 33 (which sounds a bit young for them, incidentally… but it worked out with my storyline, okay?), and Link and Zelda both 17 (math fans!).   
  
I also forgot to mention last chapter… When Zelda became Sheik at the end of last chapter, she was A TEN YEAR OLD SHEIK. Not randomly a teenager. Man, that would be horrible. Oo;; Poor Zelly. In and out of puberty every five seconds…  
  
CHAPTER EIGHT: Under Darkness   
  
Both Impa and Zelda were very quiet as they stepped across the border into Hyrule for the first time in seven years. The sky was dark and unsettling and the air smelt of rain, a light, misty fog hanging several feet above the ground, cloaking the traveling pair in itself and hiding them from distant eyes save for their broken silhouettes.   
  
"We're… home," Zelda said softly, leaning back on the horse and brushing her corn silk blonde hair back out of her face beneath her hood.   
  
Nearing her 17th birthday, the Princess of Hyrule had grown into a beautiful young woman, even after all these years of traveling from place to place avoiding the gaze of the Evil King. She was wispy in figure but was in quite good shape and was stronger than she looked. Her deep blue eyes echoed just a little bit of sadness, but her smile was the same as always, able to light up a room better than any lantern.   
  
She was wrapped in a burgundy smock and very carefully drove the horse over a small gully, muddy from a week's worth of long rains. The horse was the white stallion that she and Impa had originally escaped on, now a worn-out gray color instead of the radiant white he had been.   
  
Zelda reached out and scratched the horse behind the ears, glancing down at her nanny. "Do you think the rumors are true?"   
  
Impa was gazing wearily off into the distance, longing for even a small view of the castle or the town or the ranch, or anything that had been part of the Hyrule she left. Age and stress were evident, even on her young face, and her hair had been slung over her back in a long silver braid. She walked next to the horse, carefully stepping through the muddy patch.   
  
"I don't know, Zelda," she replied honestly. "There's no telling how accurate the words of travelers are…"  
  
"But you think they're all right about…?" Zelda began quietly again.   
  
Impa interrupted her gently. "About the Evil King holding the Triforce? There's no point in denying it any further… It must be true."   
  
"I had no doubt he'd have taken over in my absence," Zelda said, a bit bitterly. "But if he's really got the Triforce… there's no way we'll be able to defeat him easily."   
  
"I don't know about that," Impa murmured, mostly to herself.   
  
Zelda sighed and clenched the reins of the horse tighter. "Link should be awakening soon. He'll need to learn what's happened since he was gone…"   
  
"You barely know anything yourself," Impa said. "Are you sure you want to do this?"   
  
Zelda gave Impa a solemn look and nodded. "Mmhmm. I won't sit back and leave him all alone in this. I want to help."   
  
"You know it's going to be extremely dangerous," Impa reminded her.   
  
"I'll be all right… Sheik will help me," Zelda smiled.   
  
Impa nodded sagely and smiled back, though her heart was quaking inside her chest. "You've always tried to do what you think is right… I've always admired that about you, Zelda."  
  
"I learned it from you," Zelda said somberly, patting Impa on the shoulder.   
  
Their nature towards each other was only just beginning to warm up again. The past day's ride had been quite silent, on the heels of the closest thing they'd ever had to an argument.   
  
The night before crossing the border had been stone cold, a thick fog settling over the forests just beyond Hyrule. Like a chilly blanket, it wrapped the border in a blood-freezing cold snap that forced them to put off their return until morning at the risk of freezing to death.   
  
Even the horse stuck close to the roaring fire as Impa and Zelda wrapped themselves in cloaks and blankets and tried to get as much warmth from the flames as they could. Their breaths were easily visible even in the pitch black and the stars had been deadened by a cover of trees above them. It was like the world had disappeared and all there was left was the other and the horse… two sides.  
  
Finally, the silence was broken.   
  
"How can we defeat him if he truly has the Triforce?" Zelda said out of nowhere, staring coldly at the fire as she chased a shiver out of her spine by pulling the blanket tighter.   
  
Impa glanced up at her with a stern glance. "You plan to defeat him?"  
  
"I'm not going back to just sit there and watch him destroy my father's land," Zelda replied seriously. "I want to organize a rebellion… a revolt… something. I won't let him sit on a false throne any longer. By my father's memory…"   
  
She drifted off and looked up at Impa. "I thought that's why we were going back."   
  
Impa nodded a little bit and looked off to the side, almost like she was too nervous to meet Zelda's eyes. "We must free the people from the poverty they're being subjected to, yes…"  
  
"And how else besides to defeat the Evil King?"   
  
Yes… she had a point, Impa told herself. What was she expecting? To go back to Hyrule and have things as they were before? There was no shortage of stories from Hyrule about the king's cruelty, the miserable poverty, the bloodshed and the suffering…   
  
There was no use in denying it anymore. Ganondorf was the cause.   
  
Impa was thoroughly disgusted with herself. She'd seen for herself what he was capable of. The blood-soaked corridors, the slaughter of the king and all those guards… that insane look in his eyes the last time she saw him, as she turned to see him on horseback.   
  
Why was she still denying it? There was nothing to deny. This was no case of mistaken identity. The Gerudo King had overthrown the King of Hyrule and murdered him. There was no point in hoping it wasn't true.   
  
But something had to be said…   
  
"He'll be nearly invincible to face in battle," Zelda said in a very different tone. Impa glanced up and realized that Sheik was speaking through her. "The Hero of Time will have his work cut out for him."   
  
"Hero of Time?" Zelda said immediately once Sheik had finished.   
  
"It's an old Sheikah legend that seems to be coming true," Impa explained quietly, leaning back on her hands and glancing up at the pitch-black ceiling of trees.   
  
"When Hyrule is endangered, the Hero of Time will descend from the Sacred Realm with the Master Sword in hand. And with the Sages at his side he will smite evil and restore order to Hyrule," Sheik said.   
  
"It's Link… isn't it?" Zelda whispered.   
  
Her body nodded. "Yes… the boy named Link. He was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"   
  
"We were working together… to stop…" Zelda drifted off yet again.   
  
Impa glanced away uncomfortably and nodded. "Yes…"   
  
Silence invaded the strange conversation yet again. Finally, Sheik continued.   
  
"Well… I think our best bet will be to continue following the legend. Those predestined to be Sages will be awakening soon, and if this 'Link' fellow is truly our Hero of Time, he'll need to be meeting them as they wake."   
  
"Will that be enough to kill him?" asked Zelda.   
  
"The Sages and the Hero of Time? No telling… but it'll give us a huge advantage compared to what we've got now."   
  
"Must we kill him… at all?"   
  
Impa's voice had come out very small and unsure, quite unusual for her. Zelda glanced up at her with a questioning look.   
  
"What?"   
  
Impa almost looked ashamed to repeat it. "I said… 'Must we kill him at all?'"  
  
"Is there an alternative?" Sheik asked realistically. "I doubt he will listen to reason."   
  
"And if there was an alternative, why take it?" Zelda let out strongly. Her eyes narrowed into a stern expression. "He's shown no mercy for my land… why should we show mercy to him?"   
  
"It's not as simple as that," Impa replied. "We must consider this from all perspectives... People have many reasons for the things they do, and we should not pass judgment on a man until we know his purposes… his reasons."   
  
"You know his reasons already," Zelda said, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "He's a bitter, angry fool… he can't have what he really wants, so he punishes everyone else to make them as miserable as he is."   
  
"That's not true," Impa said coolly.   
  
"It is true… he couldn't have you, Impa."   
  
Impa's face lit up a brilliant shade of red and she turned away quickly, squeezing the edges of the blanket and staring down at the ground.   
  
"Did I miss something?" asked Sheik quietly, like he was afraid to interrupt.   
  
"Impa and Ganondorf were in love," Zelda said, though it seemed like she was affirming the fact in her own mind rather than explaining it to the man in her head. "He wanted her to be his queen… she refused, and because of that, he killed my father and took the throne."   
  
"That's not true!" Impa cried out. "That's not true at all!"   
  
"It's not that hard to figure it out, Impa," Zelda replied bitterly, glaring down at the ground to the side of her. "I was just a child then, but I heard the things he was saying to you the day we escaped. I heard him pledge himself to you and I heard you tell him over and over that that wasn't what you had in mind… and I saw you kiss him! I've been mulling over it for the longest time… And now I finally understand what made him insane. He was an evil man who couldn't get what he wanted, so he killed others to make up for it."   
  
"But you DON'T understand, Zelda!" Impa shot back. Her fists were clenched tightly over the blanket wrapped around her and her voice sounded very unlike her- desperate, almost. Desperately denying the guilt she felt.   
  
"You don't understand at all! You didn't know him like I did- you didn't know him before he became the king, when he was younger… he was sweet and kind and everything he isn't anymore. You can't lay the blame on someone until you understand everything about them… you don't know his reasons or why he does what he does, and you can't pretend to! You're rushing blindly into these accusations without any idea of why!"   
  
Zelda stared back at Impa, shocked to see tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Do you love him, Impa?"   
  
"That's got nothing to do with it."  
  
"It has everything to do with it. Do you love him?"   
  
"Yes. Yes, I do love him," Impa said sternly. "I love him."   
  
"I don't know if we can trust you to help this uprising then, Lady Impa," Sheik said out of nowhere.   
  
Zelda turned bright red. "Sheik!" she gasped loudly.   
  
Impa glared at Zelda (or Sheik, rather) with venom in her eyes. "What did you say?"   
  
"I only speak what I see to be true," Sheik admitted calmly. "You love Ganondorf, Lady Impa… it's only natural that you wish to see him come to no harm. You wish for mercy towards him… but mercy is something that cannot be dealt out liberally. You can't deny the fact that he isn't who he used to be… Mercy will mean very little to him, and he will offer none of it if he has a chance to strike us first. We cannot trust him to accept our mercy… do you know what I'm saying?"   
  
Impa hugged her knees in towards her chest and glared at the dirt in front of her. She swore she wouldn't let herself cry.   
  
Everything they said was true. Everything… the man she loved was a monster, bloodthirsty and vengeful, merciless and cruel. There was almost no chance that he would be unseated without violence, and almost no chance that he would go down without being killed.   
  
But to admit the truth…   
  
It was not her fault. She could not take the blame for the death of Harkinian and the pain of all the others who had suffered in Ganondorf's rule. She just couldn't… it couldn't have been all her fault…   
  
"He will kill Zelda the first chance he gets. He will kill Link the first chance he gets. He won't remember you… the Triforce has mutated him beyond humanity, beyond anything he ever was. There's no use in denying it, Lady Impa. I'm sorry… but we cannot show him any mercy. We must destroy him before he destroys everything," Sheik concluded solemnly. "I'm not accusing you of anything… but you know that I'm telling the truth."   
  
"I am a woman of my convictions, Sheik," Impa replied coldly, a bit insulted at his insinuations. "When I devote myself to a cause, I devote myself fully."  
  
"Yet you don't want him to die?" asked Sheik.   
  
"No. I believe there is still a good man inside of him, locked up by his own rage and hatred. I'd like to free that good man, if at all possible."   
  
"I admire your idealism… However, you may be the only one who still believes in that good man," Sheik sighed quietly.   
  
"Then I will believe in him by myself," Impa retorted.  
  
Sheik's consciousness faded away and Zelda was left reeling in her own tumultuous thoughts. A million memories were ready to burst at the seams of her mind and she was filled with a sudden, passionate emotion…   
  
She remembered the first day she saw him, strutting towards her father's throne with that smirk plastered on his face- bowing, but not sincerely. She remembered pulling closer to her father and squeezing his arm; his warm, comfortable voice reassuring her and urging her to be polite. She'd curtsied… and the face he made at her made her want to vomit.   
  
Then watching him through the window as he met with Harkinian… She remembered his leering face in her dreams, his cold, deep laughter echoing in her head long after she went to sleep and even when she woke up and laid there, cowering under the blankets for fear that he was anywhere nearby.   
  
She remembered his behavior that day in the hallway. The feeling of his hand, gripping her arm as he ripped her away from Impa… his sweaty palm on her throat as he squeezed her until she couldn't breathe anymore… Then the moment that STILL gave her nightmares. Saying her last goodbyes to her father when he came in the door… his face contorted into a vicious, inhuman snarl, his furious eyes glaring at her, and his voice roaring like some kind of monster…  
  
Then something happened that Zelda couldn't understand then… and still didn't now. Impa had thrown herself at him, knocking him to the side and against the doorframe. Zelda leapt to her feet and her heart soared at her nanny's rescue, and she prepared to run… when she saw it.   
  
She saw Impa kissing him.   
  
Zelda paused in the doorway and stared for a good number of seconds. It didn't make sense… WHY? Why was Impa kissing him? HOW could she? Was she just trying to distract him from Zelda? Or…   
  
Zelda was halfway tempted to throw herself in between them and kick him in the shins. "How DARE you touch my Impa?!" she wanted to scream. "How DARE you?!"   
  
But her senses told her better than that… she turned and fled down the stairs, only to be swept off her feet by Impa a few minutes later, just as she reached the main hall of the castle.   
  
Impa was flushed and breathing heavily as they ran together… but Zelda could not resist asking the question that had been torturing her since the scene upstairs.  
  
"Impa… why did you kiss him?"   
  
She didn't answer for a moment as she struggled to catch her breath. Finally, she said, "We've got to get out of here now, Zelda…"  
  
"Why did you kiss him?" Zelda repeated.   
  
Impa said nothing.   
  
Zelda's vision of the kiss was playing on loop in her memory, intensifying as Sheik and Impa argued about whether or not there was a good man inside the Evil King.   
  
A good man? A GOOD MAN?   
  
"Then I will believe in him by myself," Impa retorted calmly, facing away from Sheik and his host body.   
  
There was a good man inside Ganondorf? Ganondorf was a GOOD MAN?   
  
Impa had kissed a GOOD MAN?   
  
"HOW can you say that?" Zelda burst out incredulously a moment later.   
  
Impa glanced up at her and she exploded in a rant, words held back that she'd wanted to say for years. "HOW can you think there is ANYTHING good about that man?! I knew it from the moment I saw him he was evil! And he only confirmed it when he killed my father!"   
  
"Zelda, you didn't know him-"  
  
"I knew him enough," the princess hissed hatefully. She tightened her grip on the blanket around her until her knuckles were white. "There is nothing redeemable about a man like Ganondorf. He who would kill someone's father for a stupid reason that he had nothing to do with… Didn't you love my father, Impa?! More than you loved HIM? How could you love that monster more than Father? How could you forgive him for what he did to Father… what he did to Hyrule… how could you forgive him for what he did to YOU?"   
  
"All he did to me was love me."  
  
"He killed for you. He destroyed both of our lives… how could you possibly forgive him for that? What if he murdered the entire rest of Hyrule? Would you forgive him then?"  
  
"Zelda, please," Impa sighed wearily. "I don't want to argue about this anymore…"  
  
"What if he raped you? Would you forgive him then? Just because he was acting out of love?"   
  
"That's enough!"   
  
"What if he killed me? Would you forgive him if he murdered me in cold blood, Impa?"  
  
Impa's reaction that time confirmed that Zelda had hit a nerve.  
  
"YOU WATCH YOUR TONGUE, ZELDA!"   
  
The princess was silenced as her nanny glared at her furiously, angrier than Zelda had ever seen her.   
  
"I gave up everything for you! I gave up everything to protect you. I said no to the only man I ever loved. I watched him lose his mind, watched him go insane and kill your father, the only father I'd ever known…"  
  
Zelda struggled for words as Impa's anger climaxed, and Sheik knew better than to speak up now.   
  
"And how DARE you think I could ever go back?"   
  
"But WOULD you?" asked Zelda. She immediately regretted it.   
  
Impa stood up abruptly and threw her blanket down, a furious look on her face. "How could you ever say that? How could you EVER think I wouldn't do anything for you, Zelda?"   
  
She spun on her heels and stomped away from the warmth of the fire, off towards where the horse had been tied up. She didn't know where she would have gone, but anywhere but there sounded all right at the moment.   
  
"Impa, wait!" Zelda yelled after her.  
  
But she was out of the clearing before Zelda could speak anymore.   
  
"… Why did I say that? Why did I have to say that?"   
  
/But you make a good point, if not an irrelevant one…/   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
/Do you think, if Impa had another chance, she would change the decision she made all those years ago? The decision to protect you and do her duty, rather than what makes her happy? /   
  
"I don't know… I don't even think she knows."   
  
/But the truth is, it doesn't matter. She made her choice and she's stuck by it… I just brought up the fact that it was a hard choice to make and it reminded her of that. /   
  
"But you're right… Ganondorf doesn't care about anything anymore. He won't care if Impa still loves him, and if we give him mercy he will use it to kill us."   
  
/She knows. /   
  
"So why doesn't she realize that she's wrong?"   
  
/Ah, but it's not wrong to her, Princess… you've verbally spoken a debate that's been incubating inside of her for almost seven years now- a debate that Impa herself can't answer for sure. Love or duty? It's an age-old question, brought to life in a terrible example. /   
  
"But I don't understand… why she's so angry…"   
  
/It's frustrating. /   
  
"What is?"   
  
/To love someone… a vision of them in your head that only you can see. And the rest of the world sees them as a monster. /  
  
/Who is wrong? If you are hearing voices that no one else can hear, are you insane? Or is everyone else just blind? /  
  
/What if it's love for another person? If you love somebody that no one else can love… are you insane, or is everyone else just blind to your reasons? /   
  
/To others, it is intolerable to have one person against the fray… one person who can see that love in a cold heart. And how can you show the world something only you can see? Isn't easier just to destroy the heart? Then no one can hear the voices… and everything seems right. /   
  
/You can't see the heart either, Zelda. If the heart was destroyed and the world was set right, everything would be fine again…/   
  
/But, you see, Impa believes in the heart. So to her, it is not a matter of destroying an evil man…/  
  
/To her, it is to throw aside her own beliefs. /   
  
----------------------  
  
I'm sorry…  
  
I'm sorry I left so abruptly all those years ago. There were a thousand other things I wanted to say to you, but time was against us and I had to go.   
  
This is the last thing I wanted to do… the last thing I wanted to find when I returned.  
  
I was hoping you'd have been able to control yourself, but… you're not you anymore.   
  
I love you… I love you and I'd never want to hurt you. But I have no choice…   
  
Because I believe that you are still alive somehow, somewhere inside that dark goliath, I must do this. I must help defeat you.   
  
I will give my life if I must to destroy you. I will destroy the false god and set you free, no matter what it takes…  
  
I doubt you'll understand, but please try to see what I'm doing.   
  
I'm sorry I have to help them kill you now…  
  
I'm sorry…   
  
----------------------  
  
After several blank and mostly silent hours of riding across the field, at last, signs of civilization began to make themselves known to the traveling pair. Familiar things. The wooden outer wall of Lon-Lon Ranch. The small belt of trees and Zora's River, gurgling on in the distance like it always had.   
  
And snaking along with the river, cutting back so it was several hundred yards wide was the white marble exterior of the castle town's wall, still standing as strong as ever. The drawbridge was shattered, splintered and lying half in and half out of the river, with its rusty old chains hanging out of the opening that had held them like dead arms out of a coffin.   
  
Zelda's eyes were wide with shock and disbelief as she reined in the horse and stared at what remained of her childhood hometown. "Impa…" she murmured in a short exhale.   
  
Impa reached up around her and grabbed the reins herself, whispering to the horse to calm him still. Zelda inched off to the side and slipped off, landing to the horse's right and stumbling to the ground.   
  
She stood up and took a few more steps towards the castle, her eyes as wide as plates and one hand closed over her mouth. "Oh Goddesses…" she whispered.   
  
Past the ruined drawbridge, she could see the extent of the town's ruin. A cold wind rushed through her ears and past the broken-down houses and shops, gutted out, plundered and robbed. Bright colors of signs and people had faded into drab, gloomy grays and browns and there was no one to be seen. The dank, dirty streets, flooded over from the rain were absolutely silent.   
  
The princess took a few deep breaths as she surveyed the damage, finally, kneeling down in a helpless heap on the ground. She placed her hands before her as though in prayer and whispered something very quietly.   
  
A bright flash of light engulfed her, sweeping up from her hands and covering her body. Her golden hair shortened and her soft face was enshrouded in dingy white bandages, her blue eyes blinking then opening a definite blood red. Her body fought off a quick feverish rush as the magic ended itself, and Sheik stood up where Zelda had kneeled. With a sweep of his skinny hands, he pulled off the cloak Zelda had worn and threw it over the horse's back.   
  
"I want to go inside," he said back to Impa, quietly.   
  
"Not by yourself," Impa replied sternly, dismounting the horse herself. She pulled the reins to lead him towards a broken piece of the drawbridge jetting out of the water. A poor hitching post, but it would have to do.   
  
Carefully, the two stepped over the crumbling drawbridge and entered the castle town, stepping carefully like a pair of grave robbers avoiding the gaze of the living.   
  
Fire scarred the roads and the buildings and water from recent rains dripped from every ripped rooftop and through the cracks in the cobblestones. The sky was dark and the wind howled forebodingly, and it was apparent that this place had been this way for a very long time.   
  
And off in the distance in the place where the palace had once stood… a tall, gothic, brooding tower, so high its peak was surrounded by clouds. Black as night, steel and stone, gargoyles and great spikes protruding from its sides. From here it looked like a figure standing off in the distance. Death, perhaps, shrouded in black, and they were standing in its skeletal hands. Bones, remains to remind its victims of what had been.   
  
"My God…" Impa whispered in horror as they stood in the central square, taking in all of the destruction at once.   
  
Sheik was silent, his shared mind with Zelda filling up with memories. Memories from his life, the old castle town, trips to the market he'd taken with his princess… the days that most of these buildings were finished, their opening ceremonies. Memories of Zelda's- frolicking in the market, gazing at that beautiful purple hairpin she'd been admiring before they left, her 10th birthday when the streets were filled with celebrating people, the Harvest Festival…   
  
All of it, crushed, in ruins.   
  
Impa stepped over a broken cart and had a seat on one of the planters lining the center of the square, the flowers long dead and rotting. She stared across the market at that familiar shop, the familiar street, the familiar…   
  
This was the exact place she'd been standing the day she first saw him. Peering out of the back of the wagon shyly, then pulling his head back inside before she or anyone else could get a very good look at him. She recalled the people standing around her, gossiping about him and his people, wondering why someone had invited them…   
  
There was no denying it anymore. The capital city of the Hylians was crushed like an insect under the power of an Evil King… and his identity was very easily guessable.   
  
"The Temple of Time still stands," Sheik said with a nod in its direction. Impa glanced up over her shoulder and it was true.   
  
It was the lone standing object in the castle town, still as magnificent as ever though its outside was stained gray with grime and seven years' worth of living in a ghost town.   
  
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He wouldn't destroy the Sacred Realm, seeing as it's the source of his power…" Sheik thought out loud quite bitterly.   
  
"Could one man destroy the Sacred Realm at all?" Impa queried.   
  
"It seems unlikely… But anyway, the Hero of Time is still asleep. I can feel it in my hand," the teenage Sheikah told Impa as he made a few steps towards the Temple.   
  
"You'll wait for him, then?"   
  
"He'll need someone to help him learn his fate," Sheik replied. "I owe it to him… seeing as I'm partially responsible for what happened to him."   
  
Impa nodded very quietly. "Do what you think is right."   
  
Sheik stood, gazing back and forth from the Temple of Time to the dark castle off in the distance, almost like he was having trouble deciding something. Finally, he glanced over his shoulder, his visible blood red eye fixed on Impa. "Are you coming with me?"   
  
"Actually…" Impa replied, "I thought to go to Kakariko for the time being."   
  
"Why is that?"   
  
"It's become the refugee camp for those who fled the castle town. If we want to get a movement started, we'll need more information about what's happened while we were away," she explained.   
  
Sheik was silent for a moment.   
  
"I'm worried about you wandering around alone Ze… Sheik," Impa caught herself. "But I realize that we're going to have to separate, at least for the time being. Besides… I trust you to take good care of her, and yourself."   
  
Sheik's mouth was covered, but his eyes smiled. "I appreciate your faith in me… I'll be careful."   
  
Impa opened her arms and Sheik gave her a hug back, and they stayed embraced that way for several minutes.   
  
"Please be very careful… Don't take any stupid risks. And I mean it."   
  
"I'll be careful Impa," Sheik said quietly, but the words came from Zelda.   
  
With a final pat of the back of his head, Impa released him and turned to leave, promising that she wouldn't cry.   
  
"You be careful too," Sheik called to her as he turned back towards the Temple.   
  
"I will."   
  
After the footsteps died away, streets were silent once again.   
  
-------------------------  
  
The room was dark, and the air was thick with the scent of burning candles and old papers. An eerie silence filled it from floor to ceiling and it was all Marya could do to keep from yelling to end the awkward silence.   
  
She stood at attention behind the large figure of a man crumpled in an elaborate chair, carefully studying a map of Hyrule on the table in front of him. He hadn't moved or said anything for several hours now, except for a few times when he had slid the map around, rotating it to get a different viewpoint. Marya was beginning to wonder what he was looking for, but knew better than to ask.   
  
Ganondorf less resembled a man than he did a god, or some ancient statue portraying one. His was tall in stature and thick with muscle, bound in layers of iron armor and leather bracers, covered over all by the customary royal cape. His forehead, hands and neck were decked out with a good assortment of accessories and expensive ancient Gerudo jewelry to proclaim his role, not only the King of the Gerudo, but the Evil King of all Hyrule.   
  
He was made less of a man and more of a mysterious god by his demeanor- silent, sullen, strong. He rarely spoke unless he had something he needed from one of his attendants and when he did, his voice was deep and commanding like thunder. His face bore a cold, calculating look at all times, accentuated by his thick eyebrows and steely golden eyes.   
  
He gazed silently at the map, his head resting on his two hands folded in front of him, having toned out the entire rest of the world. It was like he couldn't even hear his aunt, standing behind him, shuffling her weight from foot to foot when one of them began to ache.   
  
At last he spoke on his own, to Marya's immense relief. "Can you hear it?"   
  
"Hear what, my lord?" she asked back, almost too enthusiastically. A conversation was her greatest desire right now… anything to break this unbearable silence.   
  
"Footsteps, coming up behind me," he went on quietly. "Silence broken by the noise of someone walking… Trying to sneak up on me and failing, hoping to get inside my head and instead wandering into my grip."   
  
Marya gazed over his shoulder at the map, which was behaving quite silently to her. "What are you talking about, my lord?"   
  
"Everyone wants to be me, Marya…" Ganondorf went on, pushing back his chair and standing up. Marya quickly raced behind him and unfolded his cape from where it had hung on the chair before he could feel her doing it as he paced behind the table.   
  
"Can't blame them, my lord," Marya smiled pleasantly.   
  
"When seven years ago I was a bastard to them… a bastard king of a race of thieves," he grinned at her darkly. "It's a delicious, beautiful irony. To think of it makes my heart quake with glee. To know that I have risen so high above them that they can't even touch me… I was the dirt on their shoes and now I'm stepping on them. How I'd love to know what one of them thinks…"   
  
Marya nodded deeply and smiled. "Only room for one on top, my lord."   
  
"Yes… just one…"   
  
He paced back and forth, folding his arms across his chest as he continued to speak. "But to be on top… the only spot that anyone vies for… Yes… it presents me with a dilemma."   
  
There was a short pause, and Ganondorf burst out again in a booming voice. "What can a man such as me do when there are a million murderers and thieves at his back, waiting to slay him and usurp his power in his death!?"   
  
Marya let out a short, uneasy laugh. "No one would dare, my lord. It is known far and wide that to mess with the King of Evil is to mess with death."   
  
"It's not funny."   
  
Marya silenced herself immediately as he continued to speak.   
  
"I'm well aware of what most people think of me… Jealous of me, high up in this tower, my Mount Olympus. Jealous of the power I hold and the power I exert over them. Furious at my… 'cruelty', furious at my disregard for whatever happens to those measly worms in their miserable little villages… I'm well aware there are uprisings hiding in this land like parasites, incubating until they feel strong enough to latch themselves onto me and suck my power like blood. I'm well aware that most of them would like to see me dead…"   
  
"They are fools not to realize how magnificent you truly are, my lord," Marya said, sinking into a deep bow. "Any who would rise against you are staved off. They know you could crush them like insects should you so desire."   
  
Ganondorf turned to her, his face a stern scowl. But it seemed to lighten when he saw the deep, smug grin on Marya's face. "Heh…"   
  
"To fear an uprising only weakens you should a real one ever start, my lord," Marya told him proudly. She strolled over to her nephew and gave him a pat on his broad shoulder.   
  
He smiled darkly once again and he reached up, pressing his aunt's hand down on his shoulder with one of his iron palms. "You're right… you taught me better than that, dear Marya."  
  
"Let the commoners pretend they have the strength for a while longer, my lord. It will make it all the more crushing when you strike them down like naughty children, somewhere where the rest of Hyrule can watch," Marya suggested.   
  
"You'd think that I would no longer have a need to prove my strength to them," Ganondorf snarled bitterly.   
  
"They know of your strength. They are merely in denial."   
  
"Yes, denial…"   
  
Ganondorf stepped away from her and back towards the table where the map was spread out. Reaching over to a quill pen at rest in a jar of ink, he removed it and began to scribble bits of writing on the edges of the map, outside where Gerudo Valley was pictured.   
  
"Can I trust you to distribute the ranks again, Marya?"   
  
"Of course, my lord."   
  
"Let them switch locations or remain as they wish… I give you full command over my 'special' lieutenants."   
  
"Thank you, my lord," Marya bowed to him yet again.   
  
"And send a message to Koume and Kotake… tell them to let Nabooru go."   
  
Marya's eyes widened immediately and her voice rose up hopefully. "Let her go?"   
  
"Yes… her monthly treatments should be finished by now. I want her posted somewhere else this time. I fear my grandmothers enjoy keeping her at the temple a bit too much… post her at the fortress this rotation."   
  
Marya nodded deeply and spoke once again in a respectful, solemn tone. "Yes, my lord… however, I was hoping…"   
  
Ganondorf turned to eye her over his shoulder, pausing his writing and leaving a small ink splotch on the paper. "Hmm?"   
  
"I was wondering, my lord… if you might release her completely."   
  
"It is not an honor to have your daughter serving in my ranks as a special lieutenant?"   
  
"Of course it is, my lord… but if she could have a free mind again…"   
  
"If it is in her free mind to oppose me… then absolutely not."   
  
Marya's face sunk. "But if you could only-"  
  
"I SAID NO!"   
  
Marya quieted herself and nodded. "I'm sorry… I did not mean to upset you, my lord."   
  
Ganondorf let out a short sigh. "Don't worry about it… and don't ask me again. I'll release her when I feel she has learned her lesson."   
  
The unbearable silence returned to flood the room, sending an uneasy chill down Marya's spine as she watched Ganondorf continue his work on the map.   
  
"You are excused, Marya," he finally said a moment later, as though he had briefly forgotten her presence.   
  
"Thank you, my lord. I will perform your will," Marya said, striking another deep bow and quickly exiting.   
  
Marya's head was a jumble of loud thoughts echoing against her footsteps as she descended the stairs of Ganondorf's Tower.   
  
He promised he'd let her go this time… it's been another three months…   
  
She folded her arms across her chest and continued her mental conversation as she passed through the iron-plated doors leading into the lower levels.   
  
He's suspicious of an uprising already… perhaps not mine, though. He's absolutely right- everyone else in the world seems to want him dead too…   
  
Play it cool, Marya. Don't lose your nerve now…   
  
She stopped to salute a pair of his royal guards- Gerudo women known as his "special lieutenants". A fancy way of saying that they had been brainwashed by those cursed witches out in the Spirit Temple. Decorated in iron armor and more like living statues than people anymore, they crawled all over the Spirit Temple and other Gerudo holy ground as well as the palace.   
  
Nabooru had become one.   
  
It had been nearly seven years now, almost at the beginning of his rule. Soon after murdering the king and establishing himself as the new sovereign, he'd ordered a thorough inquisition of loyalty through his people. Nabooru had failed, and though she tried to flee, had been placed under experimentation by Ganondorf's two grandmothers, Koume and Kotake.   
  
Marya had gone seven years now, without a kind, loving word from her daughter. What was left of Nabooru was a cold, calculating military genius. A heartless warrior who slaughtered anyone who dare stand up to her or her cousin and master. As Marya had hoped, Nabooru was indeed a legendary Gerudo… an infamous one. "The Lone Wolf Nabooru". The Great Ganondorf's number two.   
  
And Ganondorf. The "Great" Gerudo King. The "Great" King of Evil. Her nephew… a man she had begun to hate through to her very core.   
  
Perhaps hate was a strong word. Marya felt more like she missed him. She missed the way he had been before all this. Before this kingdom, before that murder, before everything.   
  
She stood behind him as his most trusted conscious advisor, offered him tactics for battles and advice on his affairs, watched him kill and maim Hylians and punish the other races who had humiliated him in his teenage years. But secretly, she was at the heart of the best-laid plot to unseat Ganondorf from the Hylian throne.   
  
As his aunt and advisor, she knew everything about him. She knew his strengths and weaknesses… and as a result, so too did the Hylian members of the underground who could make plans full-time.   
  
She constantly pondered the question of whether it was right or not to betray her own nephew this way…  
  
And the answer she always gave was that this evil king was not her nephew. Not anymore.   
  
------------------------  
  
The village of Kakariko had become the last salvation for the commoners who had fled Hyrule Castle Town after the death of Harkinian. The tiny mountainous village that had once only served as a home for the poor and the struggling was now the sanctuary of all Hylians. For there was no line between the rich and the poor anymore… everyone here was in the same boat.  
  
Poor inhabitants of Kakariko had gladly opened their village and their home to the outcasts from the market. Such compassion had not been offered to them when they were in need, but as the old adage went, "the enemy of the enemy is a friend", and all Hylians of whatever social classes happened to be left had only each other to depend on. Other races had grown reclusive in their attempts to survive. Interracial assistance was nearly non-existent and outsider races were extremely suspicious of one another.   
  
In a way, it was like another Great War had taken Hyrule in its grasp… but now, the opposing army was in the form of one man and all others were merely other pawns, feebly attempting to gain enough strength to protect themselves, much less worry about each other.   
  
The village had gotten bigger in the past seven years, but only just. New homes had been finished by the hired carpenters, but dwellings could not be built fast enough to accommodate the steady stream of survivors from the castle town's attack. Overcrowding was widespread, starvation and famine were on the rise, and disease was a constant threat. But there was no other choice.   
  
The Hylians could not leave the slums of Kakariko. There was nowhere for them to go that was NOT slums.   
  
The village did its best to unite itself and grow up a resistance of its own, but the sad fact was that the people of the village were by no means appropriate for an army. Many of the survivors from the castle town had been elderly citizens and children- in no shape to fight anyone, much less the Evil King. And those who had always lived in Kakariko had always suffered from malnourishment and were quite weak. No match for the Evil King's forces.   
  
So, Kakariko neither grew nor shrank and the people living there neither lived nor died. It and they merely existed, and that was enough for them.  
  
Leaning against one of the shabby white houses this particular evening was a young man on the cusp of adulthood. He couldn't have been much older than 18 or 19, yet the scars on his face and the dark circles under his eyes gave him the appearance of a much older man. He was clothed in little more than a shabbily mended coat and pants, and his dark hair was caught up in such a knot his ponytail vaguely resembled a rat's nest. His stubbled face was hidden beneath the folds of the coat he wore, and he had his hands hidden roughly in his pockets as he watched the villagers beginning to gather their pathetic livestock inside for the night.   
  
Seated in a curled-up position on the ground next to him was a younger boy, early teens at the oldest. His hair was shorter than his companion's, but still filthy and still in a tangle atop his head. He was wearing a tattered gray smock-- poor even by Kakarikan standards-- and with his scrawny, pale body it looked like he could have used a few square meals.   
  
Jaime and Nicolas were brothers, orphaned after the Gerudo attack on the market. They had only been 11 and 6 at the time, and were prime examples of the tragedy of the Hylians' situation. They were homeless and hungry, forced to steal from traveling idiots in order to feed themselves. Very few people were dumb enough to travel nowadays and they often ended up surviving on the kindness of a few of the richer citizens of the village.   
  
Tonight they were on guard duty, in exchange for the promise of a five Rupee an hour paycheck and a hot meal.  
  
Guard duty was the only job in Kakariko that paid exceptionally well. After all… the Evil King knew as well as the citizens of Kakariko did that they had nowhere else to go. They could live there only as long as the Evil King permitted it… at his slightest whim, they could lose this town just as they'd lost the Market. It was the guard's jobs to make sure that there would be survivors if this ever did happen. The guards were also ordered to keep an eye on the residents of the town… even friends could not be trusted. Though the most severe thing the guards had ever had to put a stop to was an instance in which crazy old man Shikashi had mugged the wife of the carpenter boss, desperate for enough Rupees to afford his week's worth of grain.  
  
It was never worth the risk to let down the village's guard.   
  
"I can't keep my eyes open any longer," Nicolas mumbled, his head lolling off to the side.   
  
"You have to… we're not being paid to fall asleep out here," Jaime replied sternly, nudging his younger brought with his foot.   
  
"I'm STARVING… Can't I go inside and get something to eat, Jaime?"  
  
"We were promised our food after our duty is over… Just stay awake a little bit longer."   
  
"It's your shift anyway… can't I get a little bit of rest while you keep guard?"   
  
Jaime gave his brother a smug glance. "We didn't set up 'shifts'. And besides, the sound of you snoring will put me right to sleep. We're in this together… or else I get all the food."   
  
Nicolas made a face and let out a deep sigh, leaning back against the house. "Fine…"  
  
"Stand up if you need to. We've got to keep our eyes out for anything suspicious happening… anyone entering without permission," Jaime ordered.   
  
"Why? No one's gonna come at this time of night…"  
  
"That mindset is exactly why we have to stand out here," the elder brother snarled. "Can't you take this a little more seriously? If someone enters, we're the village's first alert."   
  
"I'd take it more seriously if I could have a piece of bread. Butter optional… I'll even eat the crusts at this point. I'm hungry and sleepy, Jaime… let me take a break, will you?"   
  
"I said no, Nicolas."   
  
"Why am I asking your permission anyway? You're not my boss!" Nicolas spat, suddenly aware of this fact. He rose to his feet and dusted off his cloak, a fairly pointless endeavor as it was already caked with mud and dirt.   
  
Jaime frowned at his brother and reached over to grab him by the collar. "I am your boss. I've been feeding you for all these years, you little ingrate…"   
  
"I'm just going to get something to eat!" Nicolas whined, ripping his collar away from his brother and stumbling away. "I'll be RIGHT BACK. But if I don't eat something, I'm going to DIE."  
  
"If someone gets into this village while you're gone, we will ALL die!" Jaime said darkly. "Get over here and help me keep an eye out."  
  
"I think you can manage by yourself for a minute or two, Jaime."   
  
"No, I can't. I'm starving too. If you go off to eat, there will be no one between me and Miaka's chickens over there."   
  
Nicolas looked at his brother in the manner you would look at a man with a bucket on his head. "Are you insane?"   
  
"Getting there. Come sit down again."  
  
"I'll only be a second!"  
  
"I can't WAIT that long- I will have wrung that bird's neck and be eating it raw by the time you get back!"  
  
"Jaime, that's gross."  
  
"So is starving to death. By Nayru, if I waste away into nothingness, you're coming with me!"   
  
"You've lost it, brother," Nicolas rolled his eyes and tried to walk off again.   
  
"I said come back!"   
  
The two brothers began to tussle, Jaime knocking Nicolas back against the house and Nicolas quickly punching Jaime in the face to get him away. Soon they had each other in a chokehold, and were about to land on the ground in a wrestling heap when a third party intervened, poking Jaime on the shoulder with a slender finger.  
  
"Excuse me…"   
  
Both brothers screamed in terror and leapt a good three feet in the air before landing and whipping out the staffs they'd been armed with for guard duty.   
  
"Who the hell are you?!" Jaime growled.   
  
"This village is off limits!" Nicolas shouted.   
  
The woman took a few steps back, blinking in confusion. "Is that so? Hmm… I should like to ask the person in charge about that."  
  
She pulled off the hood of her cloak and set out her hands in the universal "coming in peace" gesture. "I mean you no harm…"   
  
"You're a Gerudo! Of course you do!" Nicolas snarled. "ALARM! ALARM! INTRUDER ALERT, AND SHE'S A GERUDO!"  
  
"… I'm not a Gerudo, you silly boy," Impa replied with a cross look on her face.   
  
"You ain't a Hylian!" Nicolas retorted coldly.   
  
"She's a Sheikah, stupid," Jaime told his brother, nudging him roughly in the shoulder.   
  
"… A what?"   
  
"They haven't been seen since before Princess Zelda disappeared," Jaime explained matter-of-factly to his brother. He seemed much calmer about this revelation than Nicolas did… Nicolas looked like he was about to go ballistic.   
  
"So what are we supposed to do if one of THEM shows up?" Nicolas asked, still not letting his eyes leave Impa for even a moment.  
  
"Well… the rest of the village is wakin' up. Let's ask," Jaime shrugged as uproar began to take seed and sprout throughout the dark houses.   
  
Doors were opening and village men carrying broomsticks, scythes, rakes, anything they could find that could work as a weapon began to appear, rushing towards the brothers and their guest.   
  
"This village is forbidden to outsiders!" Nicolas repeated, giving Impa a look of seething venom. "And I'll die protecting it…"  
  
Impa looked quite put-off by this whole ordeal. "There's really no need to raise uproar about it… Has it really been so long that no one remembers me? I told you I mean you no harm, boy."   
  
"We'll see about THAT!" Nicolas roared, lunging at her.   
  
Impa easily sidestepped the boy and sent a fist crashing down on the back of his head, knocking him to the ground and out cold.   
  
By the time the other villagers had gathered, Impa was standing with her hands on her hips, watching as Jaime tried to revive his unconscious brother.   
  
"Who the hell are you?! How DARE you hurt one of our boys?!" snarled a large man with a pitchfork.   
  
"Frankly… Nicolas did deserve it," Jaime sighed from his position helping his brother sit up.   
  
"She's an outsider and she's not welcome here!" another, skinnier man in the back piped up, inciting a vicious grumble among the other men.   
  
Impa sighed deeply and shook her head. "Is there nothing I can do to convince you that I'm not here to harm you?"   
  
"Aren't you… a Sheikah?" asked a man standing behind her.   
  
Impa glanced over her shoulder at the man, a muscular man in a cap with a thick gray beard. "Yes… I'm Lady-"  
  
"Impa?"   
  
The mob immediately fell silent as the bearded man pushed forward. "My God… You're not… Is it really you, Lady Impa?"   
  
"LADY IMPA!?"   
  
Impa cringed as she was set upon by the mob of men, but now rather than threatening her they seemed overjoyed at her return.   
  
After all… she, as the lone survivor of the Sheikah, had been named the heir to Kakariko Village when she was only a teenager. She was the one who had opened the village to the poor of Hyrule in the first place and she was the one who had, until her escape with the princess seven years ago, been helping to sort out the village's affairs. Those who had lived in the castle town knew her as Princess Zelda's guardian. EVERYONE knew who Impa was.   
  
Some of the men she recognized from her visits in the past, only they were much older and their eyes were much sadder now. Many of the men shook her hands, several fell at her feet, nearly weeping, and the bearded man seemed to take charge over the rest of them.   
  
"I'm terribly sorry, Lady Impa," the bearded man bowed deeply. "We did not recognize you after all this time… and our guards tonight were quite young and quite rash."   
  
"It's not a big deal," Impa smiled pleasantly, pushing her way out of the circle of men and kneeling down where Nicolas was just coming to.   
  
The boy glanced at her with a horrified expression. He'd just attacked the MATRON of Kakariko Village. "I'm… I-I'm s-so sorry, Lady Impa," he bowed deeply.   
  
"Please forgive my brother… He is an idiot," Jaime said solemnly, lowering his head respectfully.   
  
Impa let out a short laugh and lifted up Nicolas' chin. "Didn't hit you too hard, did I? I'm sorry about that… Please, don't feel bad. You did what you had to do."   
  
Jaime and Nicolas both looked shocked at her lax nature.   
  
"I'm glad to see Kakariko is in such able hands," Impa winked at the brothers and stood up, brushing some stray hair out of her face.   
  
"It's been seven years since anyone's heard from you, Lady Impa… your visit warms my bitter old heart," the bearded man said happily. "D-do you have news of the princess?"   
  
All of the men looked very earnestly at her, anxious to hear her reply.   
  
"She is alive, if that's what you're asking," Impa smiled calmly at them.   
  
A loud, raucous round of laughter rose through the men.   
  
"I knew it! I knew she was still alive!" a younger man sobbed loudly.   
  
"There is still hope…" the bearded man sighed.   
  
"There is always hope," Impa corrected him. "I'm sorry to drop in on you all so late at night… but I only just arrived back in Hyrule tonight, and I needed to find somewhere to stay."  
  
"You're ALWAYS welcome to stay here, Lady Impa!" several men gushed.   
  
"Are you a part of the resistance, Lady Impa?"  
  
"Do you know about the revolt that's starting?"  
  
"You've heard of that sick Evil King, haven't you? Not been out of the loop, Lady Impa?"   
  
"Is the princess here in Hyrule too, Lady Impa?"   
  
"Let's not burden her grace with petty questions, gentlemen," the bearded man ordered his comrades, helping to usher Impa out of the crowd and a bit to the side.   
  
He leaned in towards her and whispered, "We need someplace we can talk privately…"   
  
Impa nodded to him and motioned to the house that had at one time belonged to her family. "Will my home suffice?"   
  
"Fine… Just gotta ditch the mob," the bearded man smiled sedately.   
  
Impa turned to the mob of men and raised her hand for silence, with immediate results.   
  
"I think that stories are best suited for sometime not so late in the evening," she said. "Let us all get some rest and tomorrow we can continue this, all right?"   
  
The crowd of men offered their goodbyes to Impa and slowly began to disperse, all except for Jaime and Nicolas, who were still standing as though waiting for something a short distance away from Impa and the bearded man.   
  
"We have much to discuss, Lady Impa…" the man sighed.   
  
"Hey!"   
  
Both turned back to face the brothers- Nicolas, with a bleeding lip from his crash into the ground and Jaime, who looked quite indignant. "We were promised food, Orin. When're you gonna deliver?"   
  
Orin frowned, "I promised food when the guard duty was completed,"   
  
Nicolas let out a short whined before Impa interrupted, "Sir Orin… can we not give them a break for a little something to eat?"   
  
Jaime and Nicolas gave Orin a pair of quick puppy-dog faces, and he sighed at first. "But no one will be watching…"   
  
"At least until his lip stops bleeding. That's my fault," Impa smiled.   
  
"Fine… If that's your will, Lady Impa."   
  
Retiring to the abandoned old house that Impa had grown up in, Orin and Impa sat at a small table upstairs around a brightly flickering lantern. From below, the sound of Jaime and Nicolas devouring the bread and soup they'd been given could be heard faintly.   
  
Impa folded her hands before her on the table and smiled sadly at Orin. "I imagine these two are a testament to how things are in Hyrule these days…"  
  
"It's a shame… but Jaime and Nicolas are not an isolated case. Hundreds of us are starving, working day and night to produce enough food for the palace that we cannot possibly toil any longer for ourselves. We are poor, sick, and exhausted… And still, we are forced to work that the Evil King not completely destroy us," Orin sighed bitterly. "As long as we are useful to him, we can remain here… if ever should come a day when our food production is below his standards, the consequences would be disastrous. I haven't a doubt that Ganondorf would destroy the entire village."   
  
Impa shivered slightly at the mention of his name.   
  
"Things have definitely gone downhill since his majesty was murdered… Not just for us Hylians, either. All the races have their problems… nothing any of us can do to help the other. We just survive by ourselves, day-by-day. Hard times for everyone… Except the Gerudo, naturally."   
  
"That is why the princess and I returned," Impa explained. "However… I wouldn't be so enthusiastic about it. Now that the true heir to the throne has returned, the Evil King's rule is in danger. With the Hero of Time awakening soon, our chance for an uprising is quickly approaching. If we are going to take our kingdom back, now is the time when we must prepare."  
  
"We've been preparing… for a long time now," Orin replied. "I know of several revolutions in the works, most of them small, but all of them growing quickly. I myself happen to be involved in one of the larger ones… My job within the revolution is to keep an eye on things here. Keep the men in fighting shape, the women happy, and the children alive."   
  
Impa nodded silently, folding her arms across her chest.   
  
"Of course… we've no standing army at all. The Evil King is too smart to allow something like that to happen. I use the term 'revolution' quite loosely. We're actually little more than a small faction of members who all support an overthrow of the throne… Bigger, because we have a few key people working with us."   
  
"Such as?"   
  
"Big Brother Darunia of the Gorons… Until recently, the Zora King was also involved in this organization. We've also got a Gerudo woman… a direct insider to the Evil King's forces. She's sort of our leader… she'd know more about the revolution than I do."   
  
Impa gazed at Orin with a bit of alarm. "And you're sure you can trust this woman?"   
  
"Absolutely," Orin replied back, sincerity gleaming from his sad brown eyes. "This woman… Marya is her name. She's a blood relative of the Evil King, and her motives for fighting him are purely based out of her own love for him."   
  
Marya…   
  
Ganondorf's aunt, Marya?   
  
Impa's memory was reeling back to the time she'd seen Marya, back when she was a teenager… that evening in the courtyard. That crazy woman who'd ripped Ganondorf away from Impa and slapped him. The woman who'd screamed at him about his duty.   
  
Now she was fighting him?   
  
Something didn't fit here.   
  
Impa's face creased with worry. "… I see…"  
  
"Something wrong, Lady Impa?"   
  
"That doesn't sound right to me… Exactly what have you been telling this woman?"  
  
"She's our leader, Lady Impa. She knows everything I do, possibly more. If you're looking for inside information on our revolt, Marya would be the one to talk to."   
  
"Where could I find her?"   
  
"Depends on the day… She's often inside the palace itself, but she's usually in charge of the Gerudos at their fortress. I would imagine you could catch her in Gerudo Valley if you wanted to speak to her…" Orin drifted off. "However…"   
  
There was a brief moment of silence.  
  
"The Gerudo are Ganondorf's personal army. Most of them are extremely loyal to him… and we are usually only able to speak to Marya when she comes to see us on her own accord. To go into Gerudo territory to talk with her about overthrowing the Gerudo King would be EXTREMELY dangerous… not to mention a bit asinine."   
  
"That goes without saying," Impa said with a short smile.   
  
"Well… if my lady could be patient… I could try to contact Marya and tell her that you have returned. She's interested in anyone who could help us out, and without a doubt, you will be helpful to our revolt. She may issue a summons to you, which would save you from having to sneak into the valley to speak with her."   
  
"That would be very helpful, Sir Orin," Impa nodded. "Please… contact Marya, and tell her I'd like to speak with her as soon as possible."   
  
"I'll do as you ask, Lady Impa. In the meantime, we would be most honored if you would stay in the village for a while."   
  
"That was my plan. I need a place to lie low for a little while, where the Evil King would not think to find me," Impa replied.   
  
"Absolutely," Orin smiled. "Though… I imagine with your return, you will wish to become our matron again?"   
  
"It seems to me that you've had things running well to the best of your ability, Sir Orin. I would actually be honored if you could continue to run the village for me until I'm ready to make a move with the revolt."   
  
Orin turned a little bit red. "As you wish, my lady… I will send a message to Marya at once. Now… please excuse me. I'm sure you're tired after your long journey and you could use your rest."   
  
"Thank you, Sir Orin," Impa smiled at him.   
  
Orin rose from his chair and began to descend the steps down to the lower floor, where Jaime and Nicolas were well into their third helpings, devouring the food like wild dogs. "You two! Hurry up and shove off, Lady Impa needs her rest!"   
  
Jaime eyed Orin with a cold expression. "You promised us food. We'll leave when we've had enough."   
  
"They don't have to go anywhere if they don't want to," Impa spoke up from upstairs.   
  
"But my lady… I don't imagine you'd like to share your home with these ruffians?"   
  
"I'll take them and any other 'ruffians' who have no place to sleep tonight," Impa replied crisply.   
  
Nicolas beamed at Impa as he finished drinking the last of the broth from his third bowl of soup. "Th-thank you, Lady Impa!"   
  
"You're quite welcome, Sir Nicolas. It's the least I could do for knocking you out," Impa smiled at him.   
  
"Finally… someone who knows how to run a village," Jaime sighed, throwing Orin a joking glare and waving at him.   
  
Orin rolled his eyes and bowed to Impa once more before heading outside. "Goodnight, Lady Impa."   
  
------------------------  
  
(A/N: Okee, little time jump here. This scene takes place three weeks after the previous one. The point in the OoT storyline is just before the Shadow Temple and just after the Water Temple… as can easily be inferred.)   
  
It was such a fascinating chain reaction of events. Every time Ganondorf's hand made a stroke with the whip, his victim would scream. Every time he heard the snap, blood would spatter from a fresh wound and across the floor. Every time he would kick the body, she would fall over again and the chains would stop her from hitting the ground.   
  
Even in the darkness, he could see the dark outlines of her pooled blood staining the floor, staining his boot and staining his whip. He could barely see her silhouette, crumpled on the floor like a broken statue, the tears occasionally leaving her face and falling down onto the floor to join the blood in a lake of sorrow.   
  
And yet, she still refused to follow his orders.   
  
"For the last time…" he spoke in a deadly voice, leaning down close to her and squeezing her ponytail in his fist so hard it pulled her hair. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way… All of this pain could be over, if you'd only cooperate with me, my dear…"   
  
The woman gave a guttural moan and shook her head weakly. "Never…" she whispered in a faintly familiar voice.   
  
Ganondorf let out an enraged growl and roughly threw her head down towards the floor. Her body whipped as the chains once again saved her from hitting the ground, and then lurched as the whip cut across her back again.   
  
"Why don't you people ever understand?" he roared, whipping her over and over again, savagely, playing with her like she was a toy. "Why don't you EVER UNDERSTAND that if you'd OBEY ME, it would all be SO MUCH LESS PAINFUL!?"   
  
"I'll never obey you!" the woman screamed defiantly in between her shouts of pain. "NEVER! AAAH!"   
  
Ganondorf aimed a kick at the center of her back and she flew forward, her legs almost whipping out from under her with the force. She let out a cry of pain and fell limp on the chains, trembling very softly in the dim light.   
  
"This is your last chance…" Ganondorf murmured in a deadly whisper, leaning in close to her. "Pledge loyalty to me… pledge your love to me. Obey me… swear you'll always be true to me…"   
  
"Never…"   
  
"Swear it."  
  
"Never!"  
  
"SWEAR IT!"   
  
"NEVER!"  
  
"Fine. Have it your way. You've turned down my mercy… I have no choice but to show you my fury!"   
  
With a short wave of his hand, the chains on her wrists snapped and released themselves. She very nearly fell to the ground, but was stopped and almost lifted into the air as Ganondorf backhanded her so hard she went flying across the room. Very nearly catching herself on the wall, she stumbled and landed on her knees before collapsing into a bloody heap, a nasty bruise beginning to rise up on her face.   
  
Ganondorf laughed deeply and evilly as he stepped towards her silhouette, lying in the faint moonlight pouring in from the lone window. "Face me."   
  
The woman remained motionless on the floor.   
  
"I said FACE ME!" Ganondorf snarled.   
  
Cruelly, he kicked her body over with his foot so that she rolled into the light, and what he saw almost made him die of shock.   
  
Impa, her face beaten and her body bloodied, her silvery hair tarnished by filth and blood and her eyes weary and bleak gazed up at him. "G-Ganondorf…" she whispered.   
  
"IMPA!?"   
  
His heart began to pound a million beats a minute when he realized what he'd done. "Oh my God… Oh my God, Impa! Impa, I didn't know it was you… I'm so sorry! Oh my God, Impa, how could I… how could I have done this to you?!"   
  
He fell to his knees beside her and lifted her wet, cold body. She stared at him forlornly before going limp in his arms, her eyes clouding over with a thin veil of death.   
  
Ganondorf shook his head. "No… OH DIN, NO! GOD, NO, IMPA! IMPA, NO! I DIDN'T… I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT YOU! I DIDN'T… I DIDN'T… I DIDN'T WANT TO… WANT TO…"  
  
"Ganondorf…"  
  
Her voice was echoing through the room, even as she lay before him, dead. The other bodies still chained to the walls began to whisper in her voice as well. "Ganondorf… Ganondorf…"   
  
He raised his head and leapt to his feet as the bodies all began to move again, sitting up, glaring at him with cold, dead eyes. Impa's eyes. Impa's bodies… at least a hundred of them… all were staring at him guiltily, all questioning why… Why had he hurt her? Why had he killed her? Why?   
  
Ganondorf let out a short scream of terror and stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on his cape in a very undignified manner. She was watching him… staring at him from all corners of this room… He'd killed her… He'd killed her a hundred times or more, beat her to death, every time… How could he have failed to notice it was her?! And how could he have actually killed her, much less ignored his mistakes and killed her a hundred times?!   
  
The newest murder victim stood up very slowly, her eyes sinking into her skull and her face frozen in a dead expression. She lifted her hand and pointed at him with one finger, her lips mumbling something he couldn't hear.   
  
"Impa! I'm so sorry! How… How could I have done this to you? ANSWER ME!"   
  
"Evil King…" she whispered.   
  
"Evil King…" a hundred of her voices echoed.   
  
Ganondorf stumbled towards her. "Impa, please forgive me!"   
  
Suddenly, he was hit with a staggering pain in his shoulder. Like a knife had flown through the air and through his body, he stumbled and almost fell to his knees. Blood was flowing freely from a fresh wound in his shoulder, dripping to the ground around him.   
  
The chains on the wall victims snapped, and soon Impa was stepping towards him, pointing at him, blaming him from every direction at once.   
  
And like a hundred knives were being thrown at him with deadly accuracy, he screamed as a hundred wounds appeared on his body from his arms, his shoulders, his chest, his legs, his throat. The knives multiplied, soon there were a thousand wounds, then a million, blood dripping from every wound until Ganondorf himself crumpled on the floor, surrounding by a pool of his own blood, riddled with wounds and holes, trembling as he felt death slipping over him.   
  
"EVIL KING… EVIL KING… EVIL KING…"   
  
Ganondorf screamed as he awoke.  
  
Beads of cold sweat flew from his face and hands as he sat up, gasping for air, clutching at his chest as his heart beat so quickly he thought it might explode. He looked around… he was in his personal chambers, in his own bed…   
  
It was a dream.   
  
Letting out a deep and angry sigh, Ganondorf threw off the blankets and stood up, marching across the cold room and stopping in front of the ornate mirror, where a small basin of cool water was sitting on top of a nightstand.   
  
He splashed a few handfuls on his face and squeezed the corners of the nightstand, taking deep breaths and trying to clear the horrible visions from his mind.   
  
Another twisted dream… This was the third week in a row he'd been awoken in the middle of the night by horrible nightmares, sick visions that even he could not stomach.   
  
Visions of violence and death, mostly against himself and those he still felt close to… Marya… and Impa.   
  
He sank into a chair in front of the nightstand and buried his face in one hand, squeezing his forehead and clenching his eyes shut.   
  
It hurt so much to dream of her…   
  
Seven years as the King of all Hyrule could not erase the agony of losing her. The memories of the last words she said to him, the last kiss she'd given him, the knowledge that because he used to be weak and stupid and impulsive, she had left.   
  
He doubted that there was a moment in the day when she wasn't somewhere in his mind. Even when he was busy doing his favorite things- surveying his troops, torturing prisoners, practicing his deadliest spells, he couldn't stop thinking about her. Every minute of every day, he questioned what it would be like if she were indeed his queen… if she were by his side instead of out of his reach and on his mind.   
  
What it would have been like if he hadn't been too dumb to go after the Triforce then… if he'd always been this strong and if she had stayed instead of fleeing.   
  
Some goddess up there must have thought it very funny to plague him with dreams of her. Especially dreams with the sick idea that he could kill her without even knowing it… The look on her face as he'd rolled her into the window's light was etched in his brain, even if it had only existed in a dream.   
  
Ganondorf often found himself wondering where she was now. Still with that damned annoying princess, perhaps… still forced into playing "nanny" and still only concerned for Zelda's happiness and not her own.   
  
Perhaps Zelda was dead and she was finally free. Perhaps she was trying to make her way back to Hyrule now… to rejoin him. To take him up on his eternal offer to make her happy.   
  
Perhaps she had died… in a distant war, of a strange disease, cold and alone and dreaming of her Gerudo King.   
  
Perhaps he plagued her dreams like she plagued his… perhaps she longed for him like he longed for her. Perhaps she spent her days wondering "what if". What if Harkinian had never existed… if Zelda were never born… if Milana had never died and if Ganondorf had never been raised a false king. If she had never fled…   
  
It was late, and he had to get back to sleep if he was to be ready for the day tomorrow. Marya had some kind of distraction keeping her from meeting him here at the palace like he'd requested… so he'd have to perform the rounds himself rather than having her write him up a report. Checking the performances of the demonic hoards that guarded his tower, checking the behaviors of the Iron Knuckles to see if the experiments really were getting better…   
  
Even thoughts of the next day's important activities weren't enough to distract him.   
  
To be crippled by a dream… what a weak, foolish trait. A trait worthy of a teenage boy or a pathetic man… not of a great Evil King.   
  
He kept repeating that to himself.   
  
But still, the dream didn't go away…   
  
Ganondorf stood up and made his way back towards the bed, trying to think of other things. He tried not to let the dream pool up with the other things that had been upsetting him lately… The sudden death of Volvagia, the dragon he'd worked so hard to resurrect… The sudden absence of power in the curse he'd placed on Zora's Domain to teach that cheeky King a lesson… The loss of a fine breeding mare he'd been promised by the new owner of Lon-Lon Ranch…   
  
The defeat of his phantom from the Forest Temple by a very familiar young man.   
  
Yes… The "Hero of Time", as he was calling himself. The little bastard currently out wandering somewhere in his land like a parasite, the little punk who'd stood up to him all those years ago… that Link.   
  
Reports were flooding in about his actions. Reports of his slayings of numbers of Ganondorf's demonic armies. Reports of his liberation of not one, but three of the ancient temples that housed the powers of the Six Sages.   
  
And somehow, this little bastard "Hero of Time" was able to slip under Ganondorf's radar time after time, no matter how many Wolfos or Stalfos he dispatched to kill him. No matter how high of a bounty he'd set on the boy's head… a good 10,000 Rupees for anyone who was willing to bring him to Ganondorf, dead or alive. Preferably dead.   
  
But alive was always more fun… the dead can't scream, after all.   
  
Ganondorf was briefly reminded of the phantom voice in the Chamber of Sages all those years ago that had taunted him and told him that he would fall if the Six Sages were awakened.   
  
Impossible… the Hero of Time, this "Link"… he couldn't know of that prophecy?   
  
Ganondorf snorted with disgust as he prepared to sleep again. Now he was just being PARANOID.   
  
What chance did a punk kid starting a one-man revolt against HIM? The Great King of Evil? Keeper of the Triforce of Power, the very ESSENCE of the Goddess Din?   
  
These damn nightmares are making me soft… Ganondorf thought darkly as he closed his eyes and prepared for further rest.  
  
-------------------------  
  
"Thank you… for coming on such short notice, Lady…"   
  
The Gerudo woman drifted off and gazed at Impa's face in the low candlelight as though she was trying to remember.   
  
"Impa. Just Impa," Impa said modestly with a little nod.   
  
"All right… if you insist," she replied with a small smile.   
  
Several weeks after Orin had fulfilled his promise and sent a message to Marya, a reply had come in the form of a male Hylian trader who'd been snagged by the Gerudo just outside the borders of their valley. Stuttering and terrified, he arrived in Kakariko with only the message that Impa should be waiting at the bridge in Gerudo Valley three days from that time.   
  
Upon her silent arrival on horseback, a woman in a deep purple silk cloak had motioned to Impa from nearby a tent set up on one side of the bridge. Impa dismounted and followed her without a word, knowing well that this was the infamous Marya of the Gerudo. Second-in-command of the Gerudo thieves, beneath Ganondorf and his first mate, Nabooru.   
  
Marya led Impa through the small Gerudo village of the fortress, where Impa had been fascinated for the brief time she was walking by. Hundreds of beautiful women of all ages, their skin the color of cinnamon and their hair all ruby red and flowing had been standing guard, sparring off fighting, riding horses, shooting arrows. She saw a group of Gerudo children playing, several young girls inside of which had golden eyes and prominent noses that could only have come from one person.   
  
So this was the desert prison that Ganondorf had come to both loathe and love.   
  
Marya gained clearance through a large gate to the west of the fortress, and grabbed Impa by the cloak as they wandered a short distance through a blustery, sandy hell of a place and into a small stone building that was dark and abandoned, except for a single glowing torch, a stolen wooden table, and several sacks full of grain. This was a food storage building, which Marya had deemed an ideal place to hold their meeting.   
  
She bowed down towards the table, leaning against her hands folded on the tabletop before her. She was near middle age but still quite beautiful, her scarlet hair framing her face that was only slightly aged and golden eyes that looked sad beneath their fragile smile. Over her lavender Gerudo clothing she wore a thick wool cloak and shivered in the coldness of the underground room, deep beneath the wailing sands of the desert.   
  
"I am Lady Marya of the Gerudo," she began in a quiet voice, like she was afraid somebody would be listening to her. "I'm second in command among our people, beneath my daughter Nabooru… and my nephew, Ganondorf."   
  
Impa nodded. "I recognized you from the ball seventeen years ago… I saw you then… in the courtyard."   
  
"Yes… you were that Sheikah girl, then?" Marya said with a mischievous smile in Impa's direction. "I'm sorry if I startled you that time… I remember, I was in quite a mood that day."   
  
Silence pervaded the conversation until Marya finally spoke up again. "Well… Impa… I don't know how long you've been back here in Hyrule, because I heard you'd been gone… so I don't know how much you know about the situation with… my nephew."   
  
"He's the king," she echoed the many conversations with the residents of Kakariko earlier that day. "And not very popular, I hear…"   
  
"Yes…" Marya went on grimly. "Ganondorf is… he's… you know, he's always been groomed for a position of great leadership. Since the day he was born, he's been royalty. The male Gerudo is only born every hundred years, and that male is worshipped like a god. Ganondorf always seemed to have a hard time understanding why he was different than the other children… his mother and I tried our hardest to give him a level head even while all the others bowed to him and made sacrifices to him… but his mother died, when he was just a little child."   
  
"At the hands of Hylians."   
  
"He told you a lot…" Marya sighed, gazing up at the ceiling and weaving her graceful fingers together. She leaned back in her chair and went on, freeing a hundred thousand thoughts that had been gathering for many years now, giving them wings and setting them loose.   
  
"She was out on a raid with some others and they came across a party of Hylian travelers… Unfortunately, they didn't know that they were actually Hylian guard reservists on their way to the castle for active duty. They fought them off and my sister stayed behind to distract them while the rest of them made their getaway. She was taken custody and punished by stoning the next day… and the rest of her party didn't find her until her bloody body washed up and out of the river, several miles from the castle. We managed to get her home, but her injuries were severe, and she died right before Ganondorf's eyes…"   
  
Impa lowered her head, with a sorrowed look upon her face. "That's very sad… My sympathies."   
  
Marya shrugged and shook her head. "My sister's death was very hard on all of us. She was revered as the golden mother of our king… and everyone loved her, even before she became pregnant with Ganondorf. Her death was hardest on him… it made him hate the Hylians, and it made him feel more alone than he already was. No other little boys to play with. Just a bunch of women who treated him like he was special, when he didn't think he was…"   
  
Impa nodded her agreement with everything Marya said. It mirrored what Ganondorf himself had told her.   
  
"I raised Ganondorf after my sister died, and he became like a son to me… I loved him more than I could ever describe in words, as much as my own daughter. And I tried so hard to raise him the way Milana wanted him to be raised… knowledgeable of his power but not overly fond of using it. I knew he wasn't a happy child, but… I had no idea he was as miserable as he was until many years later. It seems, Impa… the only happy days of his youth were the days he spent at Hyrule Castle… with you."   
  
Impa felt her heart give a little leap and didn't say anything. She merely nodded. Once again, these were things he'd told her himself…   
  
"Again… I apologize for how harshly I behaved in the courtyard that evening, and in the day following when I humiliated him in front of you, and in front of people he hated and who he thought hated him… I was so caught up in worry about him that I didn't think clearly and I may have been the start of all of this."   
  
"I'm sure you weren't to blame…" Impa spoke up quietly. "You seem like a wonderful woman… and I know Ganondorf loves you very much."   
  
"I am to blame," Marya interrupted her, her voice becoming the slightest bit icy. "I am to blame for destroying him… I killed him. In a way, I killed my own nephew."   
  
The room fell silent once again, and Impa broke it.   
  
"But it wasn't you… who punished him, was it?"   
  
"Punished…?"   
  
"He mentioned that he was punished… in order to convince him to take his coronation?" Impa asked.   
  
Marya sighed miserably, leaning down and resting her head in her hands. "We didn't punish him… we tortured him."   
  
She closed her eyes and spoke through the tears that were welling up in her eyes and in the back of her throat. "He didn't take easily to the punishment I gave him of taking him home early. He went on and on about how it didn't matter anymore, and how he wasn't going to be the Gerudo King because he'd found something else that made him happier. He wouldn't leave the topic alone. He became rebellious and wouldn't listen to anything I told him to do, and we caught him trying to run away several times, in the dead of night. He was dead-set on keeping a promise, he said. A promise he'd made to the person who fulfilled his life."   
  
Marya looked up at Impa with a half-hearted smirk on her face. Impa's eyes widened considerably as she went on.   
  
"He was obsessed with you. He wouldn't obey us, he wouldn't stay home, he kept trying to run away to go find you. The time came for him to begin his serious magical training and he wasn't interested. He spent all his time up in his room, avoiding us so he could think about you. None of us knew what he was thinking about for the longest time, until one day, I finally realized who it was he was so devoted to…"   
  
"It didn't matter to me that you were a nice girl, or the one girl he truly loved. All I could see was that you were not a Gerudo. You were an outsider… And our king was in love with you. Our king was obsessed with a girl who could never be with him. He would not give you up. He would not accept his role… and the day I found out about it was the day I made the stupidest decision of my life. The others came to me and expressed their concerns… and I stupidly let them do what they wanted to do. If he wouldn't accept being king… they would force him to accept."   
  
Marya lowered her head once again. "Under the guise of his 'training', we dragged him into the lowest level of our training grounds. We were determined to make him stop thinking about you, to make him stop chasing a dream he could never hold.   
  
"First, we chained him down on the floor and took off his shirt. And one of us would hit him with a wooden switch and tell him not to scream. If he screamed, we did it harder, a second time. If he screamed again, we did it a third. And so it continued on until he could withstand the pain of a switch hitting bloody wounds all over his back without so much as a noise.   
  
"We'd leave him down there when we were finished, saying it would make him more independent. He screamed and cried like a child when we closed the door and it was pitch black and his back was burning… And all I wanted was to rush down to him and help him, but the others kept me out and swore that it was for what was best for the Gerudo nation."   
  
"He was trained in magic by his grandmothers, but once they were finished each day we'd move in on him again. We forced him to do a thousand things he didn't want to… we threw him into the training grounds and wouldn't let him out until he returned to us with a target from the very center of the gauntlet, no matter how bruised or bloody he was when he came, begging for mercy. We beat him more, harder, forced him to pull himself up over a bar as one of us licked at his feet with a whip.   
  
"We'd spar against him ourselves, and we wouldn't go easy on him- he'd be covered with cuts and slashes before we were done, and we wouldn't let up until he threw us off of him himself… He'd scream and cry and yell at us, horrible things, things that gave us hope that maybe he'd stopped the reason we had to start… but he'd always end with you. He'd scream your name when we beat him… he'd lay up in his bedroom at night and we'd hear him talking to you in a dream… he couldn't get you out of his head, and we couldn't stop hurting him…"   
  
Impa pulled her hand away from her mouth, where it had involuntarily landed as Marya began this part of the story. Her mind was filled with terrible visions, horrible screaming, the cries of pain from a boy barely of age as his own relatives beat him and left him in the darkness to fend for himself… lying up in his room at night, blood soaking through his shirt, staring out the window or lost in a nightmarish dream, inside of which she was the only light…   
  
He was beaten because he dreamed of her, he spoke of her, he wished for her, he longed for her. He couldn't have her… and because of that…   
  
"It was almost two years before he finally gave in to us," Marya went on in a low, sad voice. Her eyes were filled with tears, just remembering the sound of his screams. "One day he just couldn't take it anymore. He was inches from death, I was pleading with them to stop, they were promising they would once he agreed to his position and he screamed out, 'I'll be your damn king! I'll be it, I'll be anything you want me to be!'… and when they pulled him out from the training grounds that day, I couldn't see it at first, but he was a completely new person… my nephew, the one I loved and cherished was dead, in a pool of blood down there… and this new person, though he looked like Ganondorf, he wasn't the same… he was the king we wanted. Or at least… the king we thought we wanted."   
  
Impa swallowed and turned away from Marya, staring at the place where the wall met the floor of the basement room. Her gut was twisted into a terrible knot and she was overcome by guilt. "My God…"   
  
Marya continued in an even quieter voice, so quiet Impa could barely hear her. "That was the last command we ever gave him. He rose up to embrace his position… and he took charge. He did everything we wanted him to do… became a powerful sorcerer, an expert warrior, a skilled horseman… he fathered three daughters, but has no emotional attachment to them whatsoever. He didn't seem to have an attachment to anything anymore. He'd just wander around the fortress with his eyes set forward… never speaking unless he wanted something or had something to say.   
  
"He grew distant from all his former friends, especially his cousin, my daughter… and they had been very close before then. I didn't have any idea what he had planned for us and for this kingdom until we got the message that day… that he'd murdered the king and stolen the Triforce, and he was now the Evil King of Hyrule. We were happy, at first… but the happiness was fleeting for most of us.   
  
"The title… 'Evil' King? It was given to him by the commoners, but… he seemed to like it and he adopted it. 'If my actions are considered evil, so be it,' he told me. That's when saw the monster we'd created in action… he killed women and children and innocent men right before our eyes, in his court… Little by little, I knew that something was horribly wrong.   
  
"When we began to dislike the way he did things… strange things began to happen to our people. Almost as though they'd been brainwashed, Gerudo women suddenly became violent and broke the ethics we had set up over a thousand years ago… Nabooru was one of them. She's nothing like the girl I remember anymore… she barely remembers me or anything about the way things used to be… and I decided I had to put a stop to this. I had to stop the monster I helped to create."  
  
There was a long moment of silence before Marya spoke once again, glancing at Impa with a tiny smile.   
  
"You didn't know he was so obsessed with you… did you?" Marya asked.   
  
"I knew…" Impa said quietly, "I knew that he was in love with me… but I had no idea he… he went through… that."  
  
"Yes… He never spoke of you after you and the princess fled, and we dared not speak of you to him… so I don't know if he even remembers you anymore."   
  
"Something tells me he will…" Impa said quietly, folding her hands in her lap.   
  
Marya gave a half-hearted snort of amusement. "I'd be surprised if the 'Great Ganondorf' remembered even who I was these days. It's like everything I ever wanted to instill in him has fallen on deaf ears… if he could see what we see, I don't know if he'd be disgusted… or just not care anymore… I'm so sick of seeing him like this, a shell of who he used to be… and I'm sick of being a tool for him to spread his hatred and bitterness across the rest of the world… I suppose, that's why I decided to meet with you today. I was hoping… praying, even, that if he could at least remember you… maybe there was still hope for him."  
  
There was another short moment of silence as Impa took a chance to let it all sink in. He hadn't spoken of her since she had left, seven years ago… but that didn't mean he'd forgotten. Only that he'd been unwilling to speak of her to his people, the ones who punished him for loving her in the first place. And that was likely the case…   
  
A man so wicked and cruel that even his own aunt wanted to stop his rule.   
  
Well… why was she so surprised? She'd seen for herself what he'd do if he was desperate enough. He'd murdered over a hundred people in the span of ten minutes, just to show her that he meant what he promised her… he'd do anything to prove to her that he meant what he said.  
  
Perhaps he had even sought the Triforce so that he could do as she told him he couldn't… and become a god.   
  
The image still didn't fit. It just didn't fit… that smiling teenager in the courtyard… then that bloodstained man in the hallway… now, a faceless entity, dwelling in the highest part of that gothic tower in the middle of the castle town, squeezing the life out of the land.   
  
It just… it couldn't be… it wasn't right.   
  
"I have to say, though… I'm curious, Impa."   
  
Impa was snapped out of her train of thought by Marya's soft voice. She looked up at her. "Hmm?"   
  
"I take it that you, too… loved my nephew."   
  
Impa blushed a little bit. "Yes… I did."   
  
"Do you mind if I ask, then? If you loved him, why are you going out of your way to unseat him from his throne? I assume that's why you're here… You don't mind ripping him away from something that he enjoys?"   
  
Impa was quiet for a long moment before she finally spoke again. "I don't think he enjoys it. I don't think he's happy at all… I think he's a sad, desperate man, struggling to hold the power to take charge of his own destiny. He told me he wanted to be able to decide things for himself… And I think, maybe now, he feels like he can decide things for himself and he's afraid of losing that power…"  
  
She went on in a steady voice, unshaken by the awkwardness of the things she was saying. "The Ganondorf that I loved said he didn't want to be a monster… he was afraid of the power he was going to be given. I think now that he's on top of everything and there is no one to give him orders anymore… I think he'll try to do anything he can to make himself truly happy… but he doesn't realize that it's his own power, his own bloodlust and his own want for control that is making him unhappy. I believe that somewhere, sleeping inside that so-called 'King of Evil' is a scared teenage boy, imprisoned for trying to have a hold on something he really believed in. I want to set that boy free… I think that's what he really wants."   
  
"We're on the same page, then," Marya smiled pleasantly. "We both loved and we both miss the same person… now we want them back."   
  
"Yes," Impa agreed.   
  
"Then… I'll have you know that I really, honestly have no idea how we can do this… my nephew is not a reasonable man anymore, and any sign of a revolt will send him into a frenzy… especially if you're correct and he does remember you."   
  
"If he learns that I'm back in Hyrule, I have a feeling that he's going to come after me," Impa said uneasily. "He killed for me before… and I have no doubt that he'd do it again."  
  
"We'll have to keep this meeting on the lowdown, then," Marya said officially. "I'll issue orders that anyone who saw us today keep their mouths shut."  
  
"But, like you said, if some of the other Gerudo are under his influence…"   
  
"None of them at the fortress," Marya corrected her. "I made careful sure of that before I began to plan a revolt. Any Gerudo who I've suspected of being brainwashed are out in the Spirit Temple or keeping guard in his palace… That includes my daughter, several other guards, and the mothers of his daughters."   
  
"You've thought ahead," Impa smiled at her.   
  
"Yeah… it's pretty hard to pull the wool over these old eyes!" Marya grinned, thumping herself on the chest. "I trust all the others at the fortress with my life."   
  
Impa shrugged softly. "I hope you're right…"   
  
"I'm not afraid anymore… I think at this point I would rather die trying to save him than stand by watching him damn himself even more," Marya sighed deeply.   
  
"I agree… it's what we're trying to do that's important. It will give people hope, and hope is what we all really need right now."   
  
"Yes… but if we're completely crushed, it won't exactly be a morale booster for everyone else," Marya mumbled with a hint of joking in her voice.   
  
"So… what do you think we should do for now?" asked Impa.   
  
"For now? I'd lay low if I were you," Marya suggested, rising from her chair and proceeding to pace around the room with her arms folded in a very business-like pose. "I've managed to convince Ganondorf not to make any moves against the uprisings he thinks he's on to at the time… but hearing of your return will set him into action immediately if he still remembers."   
  
"I agree…" Impa concurred. "I was planning on staying in Kakariko a while longer. The people there trust me and will do what they can to harbor me until we're ready to make a real move."   
  
"Good idea… In the meantime, I'll try to find out what I can about his plans and when he might be out of the palace next… That place is like a fortress and it'll be nearly impossible for anyone to break in."  
  
"Even the Hero of Time?"   
  
Marya stared at Impa like she was insane. "The Hero of Time?"   
  
"He's working for us," Impa smiled sedately.   
  
"… EXCELLENT!" Marya burst out. "Excellent! If he's half as strong as you crazy outsiders think he is, we just might have a chance…"   
  
"It's whether or not he'll leave Ganondorf alive that's the question," Impa pointed out. "Not to burst your bubble or anything…"   
  
"That's fine… I told you, I'd rather see him dead than like this."   
  
Impa nodded, though she felt she did not share this sentiment. "My ch- … my nephew Sheik is currently working on gathering the Six Sages with the Hero of Time. I'll stay on alert for updates from him, and deliver any news I hear to you as soon as I possibly can."   
  
"Excellent," Marya repeated. "Good… this isn't bad so far… We'll both play it cool for now and keep our eyes and ears open for anything that might be important. Got it?"   
  
"Understood," Impa nodded enthusiastically.   
  
Marya grinned and reached across the table to shake Impa's hand. "Pleasure doing business with you, Impa…"   
  
"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Marya," Impa smiled as she sealed the handshake.   
  
"Let's see if we can't release that boy from his prison, hmm?"   
  
"Yes… I think he'd be smiling if he'd heard our plan," Impa mused softly.   
  
"Somehow, I know he would be," Marya agreed, her mind drifting away to an old portrait of the boy, indeed smiling with as much sincerity as she'd ever seen him wear.   
  
------------------------  
  
Ganondorf leaned back in his chair, his cold yellow eyes boring down, sweeping across the three subjects kneeling before him.   
  
"How are things at the Spirit Temple, Nabooru?" he asked in an almost bored tone.   
  
"Things are progressing well, my lord," replied his cousin in a soft, dead voice. She kept her eyes low to the floor and her voice held none of its usual character. She was barely visible beneath the thick plates of armor she wore over her shoulders and back, and the axe she usually wielded was placed on the floor next to her.   
  
Her mother glanced at her from her left, but she didn't notice her at all. "Koume and Kotake have nearly perfected what you asked, and we are growing more successful with each new attempt, my lord."   
  
"How many times have they done you this week, dear cousin?" Ganondorf asked, resting his chin on his hand.   
  
"Only once, my lord."   
  
"Then they are improving… tell them to continue as planned, and to up their experiments if they see fit to," he told her with a sharp nod.   
  
"I shall do so, my lord."   
  
"Good. Lana, your report."   
  
"The palace has been quite secure all week," the Gerudo to Marya's right said, but her voice was obviously more alive than Nabooru's. "We've had very few threats… a stirring from the inhabitants of the market, but that's nothing out of the ordinary."   
  
"Didn't I ask that someone destroy those wretched things?" Ganondorf sighed almost boredly.   
  
"We dare not get close to them, my lord. They're merely tortured souls, monsters formed from the Hylians who couldn't escape from our movement into the castle town. They seem to feed on human blood, and I don't want to let them get any closer to the palace than they are," Lana explained.   
  
"I'm not afraid of a few rotting corpses," Ganondorf waved her off with one hand. "Let them wander for all I care. They'll just serve as another deterrent for those who'd wander into my sacred grounds… Other than that, anything to report?"   
  
"Nothing, my lord."   
  
"How are the new guards?"  
  
"It's more difficult to control the ones who are under your influence, Lord Ganondorf," Lana admitted.  
  
Ganondorf let out a short, disgusted sigh and cracked his knuckles. "Another unfortunate side effect… Nabooru, ask that Koume and Kotake deal with that little problem as well. And Lana, just be patient with them for now. After a few more 'sessions', they should perfectly suit your needs."   
  
"Yes, my lord," Lana and Nabooru both nodded respectfully.   
  
There was a short moment of silence before Ganondorf's commanding voice spoke out again. "And Marya. How are things at the fortress?"   
  
"Things are quite calm, my lord," Marya spoke up reverentially. "We've had some problems with the food supply, but we received a new shipment of grains from the Hylians, who were… HAPPY to oblige our request," she added with a slightly maniacal smirk. "Other than that… things have been quiet in your absence."   
  
"That's good to hear," Ganondorf smiled at her. "I knew I left it in capable hands…"   
  
"Thank you, my lord," Marya nodded at him, daring to look him in the eyes.   
  
Ganondorf flashed her an unpleasant smile, then spoke again. "And how was your meeting with that woman?"   
  
Marya's heart gave a little leap. "What woman, my lord?"   
  
"The outsider woman that Nabooru said she saw you with the other day… the one who you met with in secret out in the food store of the Haunted Wasteland?" Ganondorf asked her, his voice still pleasant in tone.   
  
Marya glanced over at her daughter, whose face was still lowered to the ground with a blank and neutral expression on it. "Nabooru…?"  
  
"You know that it's forbidden to bring outsiders into the fortress, Marya. In fact… I believe you're the one who's supposed to be enforcing that rule," Ganondorf spat darkly. "Who was the woman, Marya?"   
  
"I was alone all day, my lord. I didn't bring any outsider woman into the fortress… on that, I swear," Marya stumbled around her words, though she tried her best to sound glib. "My daughter was mistaken."  
  
"Your daughter cannot be mistaken. She cannot invent stories, either, Marya… which is what you are proving yourself to be quite good at," Ganondorf told her threateningly. "Stop lying to me, or you'll find out the punishment for making me look a fool."   
  
Marya turned deep red and stammered out, "I'm sorry, my lord…"  
  
"Tell me the truth now."   
  
"I did have a woman inside. She was one of the Hylian merchants we've been stealing from lately, and she had come to negotiate to get back something precious of hers," she explained quickly.   
  
"And she needed to do so with you, in private?"   
  
Marya almost spoke again, but thought better of it and remained silent.   
  
"That's what I thought," Ganondorf said darkly, rising up from his throne and descending the steps before him, going towards his three subjects, lined up. He kept his eyes locked with Marya's and he stopped before her, glaring at her coldly. Lifting one hand, he waved away Nabooru and Lana. "Step back, ladies."   
  
They rose and stepped away from him, and he stared down at Marya. Her gaze from his was unyielding, and finally he motioned for her to rise as well. "Please, stand… Auntie."   
  
Marya stood up and took a few steps away from him, now staring back at him just as coldly as he did her.   
  
"I've been unhappy with your behavior towards me lately, Marya," Ganondorf began, eyeing her cruelly. "You've seemed more distant than usual. Almost like you're afraid of me… or you dislike the way I do things."   
  
"I said nothing of that sort, Ganondorf," Marya replied.   
  
"I AM YOUR KING!" Ganondorf screamed viciously, backhanding her hard and right off her feet. She caught herself on the floor and lowered her head, wincing as the sting of his fist dissipated throughout her face and she felt blood dripping down her face where his jewelry had cut her. "YOU BETTER REMEMBER THAT, MARYA! I AM YOUR KING, I AM YOUR GOD, AND YOU SHALL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH!"   
  
Marya stared up at him with a cold glare. "Yes… my lord."   
  
"What are you staring at, Marya?" Ganondorf went on malevolently. "Why do you stare at me like I'm some kind of demon?"   
  
"You've changed, Lord Ganondorf…" she repeated, unafraid of his wrath. "You're no longer the son I had,"   
  
"I've changed?"   
  
He paused and smile cruelly at her. "Yes… I have changed… I underwent a metamorphosis for seventeen years, because you wanted me to, Marya… or don't you remember? You watched the entire time!"   
  
She burned bright red as he went on. "What's wrong, Auntie? Are you unhappy with the monster you've created? Is that why you're inviting strange women into my lands… perhaps to speak with them privately, to complain about the way I do things?"   
  
"I would never plot against you, my lord," Marya assured him. "You are my king, and my nephew… I love you like a son, Ganondorf."   
  
"Yes… how reassuring," he snarled. "If you did have a son, would you have thrown him to the she-wolf bitches like you did me? Do you think you'd be happy with HIM, Marya?"   
  
"Ganondorf…" she repeated, staring up at him, sadness in her eyes. "You can't see things the way I see them now… If only you could see yourself…"   
  
"Don't give me that bullshit," he roared at her. "You hypocrite! How dare you tell me you're unhappy with me, when it's you who made me the way I am in the first place? When WILL you be satisfied, Marya? First I'm not strong enough… now I'm too strong, is that what you're telling me?"   
  
Marya had burst into tears and she remained crumpled on the floor, facing away from him and tightening her fingers around the crimson carpet. She heard him stomp up behind her and then his hand was around her throat, lifting her skinny body up and then spinning her around to face him. He leaned into her face with fire burning in his eyes and continued.   
  
"There were only a few people in the world I thought I could always trust when I was younger, Marya," he hissed at her. "And you were the one I thought would always support me… You were the one I thought would always accept me and always understand me…"   
  
"G-Ganondorf…" she stuttered.   
  
"Then you tossed me to the others, like a sick animal into a pack of wolves… I tried to reform for you, Marya… make you happy… I tried to be the son you wanted to have… because you always were jealous of my mother, weren't you?"   
  
"N-no, Ganondorf…" Marya shook her head through the loose grip of his hands. "Never…"   
  
"Yes… you were never quite happy with me, were you? If you were, you would have saved me…"   
  
"I only wanted what was best for you…" Marya whispered through tears. "Ganondorf… you must believe me…"   
  
"Is it best for me that your little revolt succeed?"   
  
"I have no revolt!" Marya screamed desperately.   
  
"You want me dead, Auntie."  
  
"I'd never, never want you dead, Ganondorf…"   
  
"You'd kill me now yourself, if you had the chance."  
  
"Never!"   
  
"I'm just a defective failure of yours, aren't I, Marya?" Ganondorf finished in a convincing, but very vicious whimper.   
  
"Never…" Marya repeated. "You're my son, Ganondorf… I love you, and I know…"   
  
"You know WHAT?" he snarled.  
  
"I know you would hate what you are…"   
  
"I'm fine with who I am, Marya. For once, I'm happy with myself… for once, I'm not being beaten by Gerudo who think I'm not strong enough to be their king!"   
  
"But the Ganondorf I know would never do this… any of this…" Marya whispered.   
  
Ganondorf paused and glared at her furiously, but he released his iron grip around her throat and instead grabbed her around the wrist. "You don't know me as well as you think, Marya… Now enough of this. You will tell me who that woman was."   
  
"I won't," Marya said, shaking her head and squeezing her eyes shut. Several tears trailed down her face.   
  
"You will tell me."   
  
"I won't."   
  
"You will tell me at the risk of your daughter's life," Ganondorf told her viciously, motioning over his shoulder.   
  
Nabooru had taken a step away from her comrade and was holding the point at the top of her tremendous axe towards her own chest. She stared blankly ahead of her, emotionlessly. Lana had crumpled up on the floor, quaking in fear of Ganondorf's anger.   
  
"Ganondorf, no!" Marya gasped.   
  
"Tell me who that woman was and what she was doing on my land," Ganondorf told her, "Or I won't hesitate to kill her."   
  
"She's your cousin, Ganondorf!" Marya shrieked.  
  
"And you are my aunt… but it apparently hasn't stopped you from betraying me, has it?" Ganondorf smiled smugly.   
  
Marya gazed up at him helplessly, and then back at her daughter.   
  
"Tell me her name."   
  
"Impa," Marya finally burst out. "Her name was Impa!"   
  
The room fell silent, and Marya didn't let her eyes stray from Ganondorf's for even a second.   
  
Slow realization came to him. His eyes widened and the name echoed in his head.   
  
Impa…   
  
IMPA…?  
  
IMPA?!   
  
"You must be mistaken," Ganondorf said darkly.   
  
"I'm not… I met with a woman named Impa!" Marya repeated strongly. It was obvious that the name had some effect on him. She almost would have smiled, had the situation not been so serious.  
  
"You're STILL lying to me!" Ganondorf roared. "I knew you would resort to low measures to make me do what you wanted to, Marya… But how DARE you taunt me with HER name, you BITCH?!"   
  
"I'm not lying, Ganondorf!" Marya screamed back. "I'm not, I'm not, I swear to Din, I'm not…"   
  
He released her again and turned away, stomping back over towards his throne with his fists clenched at his side. Marya ran behind him, pleading. "Ganondorf… she's back, Ganondorf. And she wants to see you… But not like this, Ganondorf. Not like this… she wants to see the you that she loved, the one before all this happened…"   
  
Silence.   
  
"So… you brought her into the valley, our forbidden sacred grounds, without informing me of her return… to tell her about your little 'revolt'?"   
  
"I'm not revolting, Ganondorf," Marya repeated once again.   
  
"Your behavior would prove otherwise…" he snarled back to her. He raised his hands and gave some kind of signal to Nabooru.   
  
"Ganondorf, no… please, spare Nabooru!" Marya pleaded. "I'm sorry… this is all my doing, none of the others had anything to do with it… it was all me, and I've learned my lesson…"   
  
"Where is Impa now?" Ganondorf said under his breath.   
  
"Kakariko Village," Marya said quickly. "Ganondorf… please, don't hurt her… it was all my doing. All my doing…"   
  
There was silence, then Ganondorf gave a broad laugh.   
  
"Don't worry, Marya… I've learned many lessons from the things you taught me. I'm not one for prolonged suffering… I have mercy in this heart of mine… unlike you."   
  
There was a sudden scream of agony and Marya pitched forward, collapsing onto her knees. She inhaled a quick breath and held in another scream as she looked down and saw it- a steel point protruding from her chest, and the axe it was attached to beginning to bury the corners of the head in her shoulders. Marya trembled in agony, bending over to try and lessen the searing, white-hot pain. "G-GANON…DORF…"   
  
Ganondorf caught her by the chin and lifted her face up to look him in the eyes, relishing the pain and shock on her face. "That's why I'll make your death quick, dear Auntie…"   
  
With that, he twisted her neck until there was a crack, then she fell limp upon the steps leading to his throne. The axe disappeared from her back and her body nearly came with it, but its wielder quickly kicked her back down to lie in a limp, bleeding heap, face-down on the stairs.   
  
"Good job, Nabooru," Ganondorf smiled at her as she resumed a kneeling position before him. "Inform Koume and Kotake that their experiments are succeeding in this aspect."   
  
"Yes, my lord," Nabooru nodded deeply, a smirk appearing on her otherwise emotionless face.   
  
Ganondorf kicked his aunt's body further down the stairs and eyed Lana, who was still huddled in the corner, withholding gasps of terror. "Get her out of my sight and clean this up, Lana. Take her back to the fortress and tell the others that this is what happens to those who betray me."   
  
"Y-y-y-yes, m-my lord…" Lana nodded fearfully, crawling out of the corner and towards Marya.   
  
Ganondorf had a seat in his throne and stared, never blinking across the room, heavy thoughts weighing on his mind. "You are both excused."   
  
Impa…   
  
She was back! Here, in Hyrule! Only twenty miles away, holed up in the rat hole of Kakariko and surrounded by those disgusting Hylians!   
  
A deep, evil smile creased itself across Ganondorf's face as the doors slammed shut and he was left alone with his thoughts.   
  
How would she look? A silver goddess, like he imagined… Wrapped in a traveler's cloak, weary from her long journey, but still beautiful as ever. Those haunting red eyes would smile at him and her perfect lips would whisper his name. Her loving arms would wrap around him once again, and to feel her in his arms would be ecstasy, what he'd been waiting for all these years…   
  
And huddled in the corner nearby her, terrified at her beloved nanny's betrayal would be Zelda… the second piece of the Triforce that had eluded him shining brilliantly from her left hand!   
  
At last, Ganondorf's fruitless search was at an end. The two women who had escaped him that day seven years ago, the only two things he wanted were waiting for him there, waiting for him, ripe for the taking.   
  
He smiled wickedly as he remembered the voice in the Sacred Realm that had told him that only two things would never be his- the woman he loved and the remainder of the Triforce.   
  
Oh, how wrong that voice had been.   
  
Tomorrow would be the day… the day of destiny, the day he'd been waiting for… He and Impa would be reunited, and at last, there would be a queen on his throne! An Evil Queen beside him…   
  
Marya's death left him without an advisor but presented him with something so much greater… The Triforce of Wisdom, and his future bride, both waiting for him in the village of Kakariko…   
  
He closed his eyes and pictured the well at the center of the village… He'd need to stir up something to keep the Hylians distracted while he appeared to take what was his… Those old legends he had sifted through on his way to find out about the Triforce finally had some use.   
  
Deep in the depths of the well's darkness, something slept… docile and quiet now, but as Ganondorf pictured it; it began to writhe restlessly in its watery prison. It began to spread and wriggle and squirm as it seeped along the walls like floating water, trying to find a means of escape.   
  
"Wake up, little spirit…"   
  
The Triforce on his hand glared with a bright golden light as its power was tapped into. The mental link grew stronger until suddenly, he could see the dank, horrid place where this creature was trapped. Darkness and death filled him and he continued to speak to it.   
  
"Awaken for me, spirit… Demonic resident of Kakariko… Can you hear me?"   
  
It answered him back with a horrific otherworldly scream of rage and sadness.   
  
"Yes, you've been locked up for a long time now…"   
  
It had found the holy seal that had been set in place to keep it there six years ago, and it was helpless to escape it.   
  
"If I let you go… will you do what I say?"   
  
Another scream.   
  
"Listen well, spirit… I am Ganondorf, Great King of Evil, and I am your master…"   
  
Dark omens spilled into the air around him as he continued his telepathic orders to the awakened spirit.  
  
"Destroy the village of Kakariko. Burn down every house and kill every person you find… except two."   
  
The spirit rumbled its agreement, quaking with pleasure at its happy orders.   
  
"Leave alive the Princess of the Hylians… keep her trapped until I arrive, understand?"   
  
The spirit agreed.   
  
"And leave alive the Sheikah woman… I will take care of her myself."  
  
An angry scream echoed through Ganondorf's head.   
  
"She is mine. If you harm her, I will damn you into a place smaller and darker than the well. Leave those two alive, and you may feed on the others as you see fit."   
  
Finally, the spirit howled its agreement and began to swirl around in a vortex within the well.   
  
"The power to escape is yours, my servant… Gather your strength and you should be able to break the seal within a few hours."   
  
The beast howled back in an inhuman wail, but its words were understandable to his ears.   
  
"Your will be done, master."   
  
He opened his eyes and smiled malevolently; almost afraid to believe what he now knew was the truth.  
  
Even if she refused to take his hand like she had before, he now had at his disposal the entire village of Kakariko, as well as the life of the princess.   
  
If for some reason she refused him—but of course, she would not—he could easily change her mind.  
  
His lips erupted into an evil grin and he laughed darkly, once again imagining the feel of her hand in his, her arms around him, her beautiful eyes and her perfect body… soon to be his and his alone.   
  
"Impa, my puppet… your strings are mine!"   
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Like the last line? A variation of a verse from a Nightwish song "Feel For You", which may or may not be about necrophilia. Hmm. PLEASANT! Well crap, man. This is starting to look pretty grim for Impa! Ganondorf's batshit psycho (don't you love how I said "crap" the line above but then went all the way in that one? Whatever, GG .), Zelda's in danger (wherever she is- which is with Link, of course. Sheik, remember?), who the hell knows what's up with Link, Bongo-Bongo is about to go Godzilla on Kakariko- OMGTEHSUSPENSE!1!11 Well, stay tuned for the next angst-filled edition of NEVER MY DESTINY- in which the lovers shall meet again! GASP!!   
  
It makes romantics like GG CRY!   
  
Oh yes, and a nice prize goes to the person who can tell me where I got the names for Jaime and Nicolas. I'll give you a hint: The characters I took the names from were also brothers… but they were twins in the original work. - 


	8. Nine: Sage of Shadow

Never My Destiny  
The World's First (Serious) G/I Fic  
By Galaxy Girl

A/N: Congratulations to Quueenie and Mynxine, who simultaneously gave me the correct answer to my Random Trivia question last chapter (ten years ago). Jaime and Nicolas were twin brothers (one a doctor, the other a hippie, respectively) who did indeed originally appear in Isabel Alende's "The House of the Spirits". Incidentally, a very, very good read if you don't mind a bit of weird gore. But you're reading this, so apparently you don't.

I had fun writing that question (it kind of makes all this depression and crap less sad for me!) so I'll give you all another one! In this chapter, Ganondorf in particular has some dialogue based on the lyrics to two songs by one of my favorite bands (you can see what those are under my profile). Name the band and the songs in your review (or in an email to me) and you'll win a special prize- Oh, and no fair if I told you prior to publishing this chapter (via IM).

Mmkay. Down to business. I really don't know how long this story will be, but probably a few more chapters… then it'll get REAL depressing. I want to thank everybody for reading this story and giving it a chance… I have worked really hard and it and though it isn't my usual style, it's helping me add angst into other GG-riffic works of mine and it's very good practice.

BY THE WAY. Who else things FF.N's sudden deletion of all asterisks and tildays is stupid!? ::raises hand::! Not to mention… ergh… Well, we won't talk about that. I think you all know what's happened to my poor account. Ah, well.

Sorry it's been so long since an update, incidentally! ; I've had a lot of trauma lately dealing with the last of my scriptfics and stuff.

CHAPTER NINE: Sage of Shadow

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----

"Ruto says thank you."

"Does she?"

"Yeah… But I wouldn't encourage her if I were you."

Sheik smiled oddly behind his thin veil, shaking his head with a short chuckle. "She's a bit overbearing, isn't she?"

"She redefines the word."

Two young men sat on a grassy section of an island, far out in the middle of the serene Lake Hylia. Waters lapped at dried-up sections of dirt on the lakeshore and around the island. For a little over a year, the lake had been dry, its sacred waters sucked away by the demon amoeba dwelling deep within the temple below them, an ancient maze of marble corridors and traps. Now, the Sage of Water, Princess Ruto of the Zora had been awakened, and there was a rare moment of calm for the Hero of Time.

He was a stunningly handsome young man of seventeen. He had soft, barely sad blue eyes that stood out among his pale face and features and his feather blond hair. His tunic, still wet from the battles within the temple, clung to his well-muscled body and he leaned back on his hands, watching the sunrise.

Perching on his shoulder in a faint circle of blue light was the form of a tiny, curvaceous female fairy. Her wings were patterned like a fine, glassy doily and within the glow one could make out a shock of pink hair falling down her shoulders, bright blue eyes and a tiny, carefully sewn dress. She rocked back and forth on her charge's shoulder and wiped her pink curls out of her face.

And sitting a short distance away was a Sheikah teenager, for once not racing off after the fact and stopping to take a break and watch the sunrise.

"The sunrise has never changed, has it?" Navi asked, her voice like a bell in the silent morning.

"Nav, what are you talking about?" asked Link, playfully swatting at her with a few fingers.

"The sun comes up every morning, and there's always a dazzling sunrise to come along with it. Even with a darkness over the land, it's always risen. Right?"

"Right," Link replied.

"And it's the same sun everywhere," Sheik went on. "Even in lands far away from Hyrule, the same sun rises at the same time every day. It's almost like the goddesses wanted to make sure every land had a piece of the sun, no matter what was happening within them."

Silence fell over the odd group.

"Well! That temple took a lot out of me! I've never used so much of my magic keeping myself dry before!" Navi burst out. "I'm exhausted."

"We can rest a while longer before we go looking for the next temple, Navi," Link assured her. "Make sure you get your magic back before we run headlong into another situation of certain doom."

"Nah, I'll be fine. I just need a flower or two and a whoooole lot of water," Navi assured him. A few glowing sparks fell from her body as she rose from Link's shoulder, stretching and yawning a bit as the first rays of sparkling light grazed the water. She made her way to the water's edge and stopped, kneeling and carefully scooping droplets of water out of the veritable ocean to drink. She was careful not to be splashed by the swelling tide and had to leap backwards several times to avoid being soaked and knocked in.

Link and Sheik watched the fairy, trying hard not to laugh at her difficulties as they continued their conversation.

"I'm really… doing it, aren't I?" Link asked with a hint of pride.

"Of course," Sheik nodded. "You're doing spectacularly. It's just like the legend says. I'm starting to believe you really are the Hero of Time."

"But I can't have done it all by myself," Link shook his head. "I've had help from almost everyone. Saria, Darunia…" He paused. "… Ruto… Rauru, you, and Navi. And Zelda, wherever she is."

Sheik smirked beneath his veil.

"Is she still alive?"

"Absolutely," Sheik assured him. "She's in hiding right now, until the moment is right for us to complete our final strike against the Evil King."

"That's good," Link nodded. "And she's safe?"

"Yes. She's very safe," Sheik said bemusedly.

"Do you know anything about the other two temples?" asked Link in a business-like tone. "Forest, Fire and Water were self-explanatory… but the other two…"

"I know them," Sheik replied casually. "There's the Shadow Temple in Kakariko Village, and the Spirit Temple out in the Gerudo Valley."

"Gerudo Valley?"  
Link made a bit of a face. "That'll be… fun."

"Don't worry… You've found a way everywhere else. I'm sure you'll be able to get there without clashing with the Gerudo too much," Sheik said.

Navi flew up from the surface of the water, her wings beating time against the soft breeze. "We probably shouldn't stand around too long. Let's get going!"

"Slave-driver," Link teased.

"Where are you going first?" Sheik asked, wiping a bit of hair from his eyes.

"I don't know… maybe we'll get Kakariko done and over with since we know we can get into the place without being killed," Link surmised.

"I may see you there," Sheik pulled a marble-sized object from his pocket and backed away. "There's someone staying there right now who I need to talk to… and she may be able to help you."

"Thanks, Sheik," Link nodded his appreciation.

"Certainly. See you around," Sheik tossed the object to the ground and it exploded with a flash as he vanished into thin air.

-----------------------------------

As is usually the case, it seemed like a normal evening.

Impa's home was silent except for the soft sounds of breathing from below. No less than ten villagers with nowhere else to go were crashed all across the floor, sleeping in great piles with a few meager blankets and the body heat of the others to keep them warm.

Impa herself was up in her bed, studying an ancient book by candlelight. Despite the tenseness that always came during the night when she was the only one who liked to stay up late, everything was quite peaceful and cozy. The blankets were warm, the candle was bright, and a soft breeze entered through a nearby open window. The night air smelled crisp and fresh.

As she flipped the pages in her book, she smiled and remembered fondly nights like this back when she was a girl. Sneaking down to the great bookshelves that lined the wall, carefully memorizing which steps squeaked to avoid waking her mother. Breathlessly snatching a candle from the table downstairs, sneaking back up and reading contently until the first light of dawn could be seen from the windows.

It was so serene, Impa could almost forget that she was in the midst of an underground war.

No physical battles yet, anyway. So far, all Impa had done was to inspire the people of Kakariko to try and improve the place. Great gangs of men and older boys, hoisting boxes of hammers, axes and crowbars could be seen working by day on repairing the decrepit houses and fences. Everyone too weak or with no knowledge of repair spent their days on their knees in the modest vegetable patches of the village, tending to weeds and sickly plants. Impa herself alternated her time between working and attending meetings with the resistance leaders to discuss future plans for Ganondorf's overthrow.

The spirits in Kakariko seemed brighter and healthier than they'd been in ages. Aching from a long day's work, the people would gather around huge bonfires at night and share stories, anecdotes and songs. Laughter could be heard again from the little children as they discovered worms and bugs in the fields or played in the mud after watering. Smiles frequented faces and everyone seemed friendlier and more willing to work with their fellow man.

Though no progress had been made against the reign of the Evil King, it was like an entirely new place. Hope seemed to be circulating amongst rumors of a green-clad young hero making his way across the land and freeing the curses of the ancient temples. Death Mountain had settled down and stopped spewing its magma and rubble all across the passes above the village. Things were beginning to look up…

Yet, there had been no word yet from Zelda.

Impa couldn't help but be worried sick about her and the young Sheikah with which she shared her consciousness. Hide nor hair of them had yet to be seen. Not even a note, which worried her most of all. Zelda was considerate enough to where she would at least try and contact Impa to assure her of her safety… But perhaps with the Hero of Time out and about and all this confusion going on, she had spaced it. Or perhaps Sheik was the one in control of the agenda and he didn't think it necessary to check in with Impa like she was Zelda's mother.

Not that Impa wasn't grateful to the ancient Sheikah for concealing Zelda like he did… it couldn't have been a picnic for him, after all, with no body of his own, forced to inhabit a girl and only show his consciousness when the time suited her.

He was still an enigma, even though Impa had technically known him for almost seven years. His personality was unusual—a constant, smug sort of cheer, even in the face of dangerous circumstances. He always seemed like he knew more than he was letting on, but Impa supposed he had learned a lot in his several centuries of wandering the earthly plane as a ghost. But he was trustworthy, and took extremely good care of Zelda. He'd treated her like a younger sister through their teenage years as a single body, and now that she was a young adult he still regarded her with a kind closeness but gave her enough room to have her own thoughts and opinions.

The candle's flame flickered as Impa gave a long exhale, clenching her eyes shut to pass off a wave of ache. She really shouldn't be up this late… tomorrow was another long day and it was just irresponsible pushing herself like this. But the book was so fascinating and it had been so long since she read it last.

Unusual how calm she was considering the circumstances. Perhaps she'd become good at hiding when she was terrified or worried about the future.

She had become good at pretending she didn't mind, or even boisterously supported the plans to destroy him. She sat with a straight face through every meeting where they discussed possible ways to end his life and his reign, some of them quite ruthless. Understandably, the people of the village did not view their oppressor in the same sympathetic light as Impa.  
Orin, however, was the sole exception. Though at first he was the number one contender for the quickest and more painful possible death for the Evil King, he had begun to let up on his enthusiasm for such a thing after seeing Impa's reaction to one particularly gruesome suggestion he'd had.

Impa had gotten to know the village leader quite well over the past couple of weeks. Together, they worked to restore the morale and prosperity of the stricken little village, sharing the same devotion to the cause.

She'd spent more time talking to him and the two of them shared their respective life stories. Despite his older appearance, Orin was actually a few years younger than Impa. He'd been born to a peasant family in Hyrule Castle Town, and in Ganondorf's initial attack, watched in horror as his mother and father were murdered by Gerudo thieves.

The dazed young man had laid in the ruins of his home for several hours, too traumatized and scared to leave. When, to his shock, his parents began to move again, this time as soulless Redeads, he fled with nothing but his father's sword and a small wallet full of Rupees.

He tried his best to be a rock for the people to depend on, but told Impa in secret that he was having trouble even thinking that they had a chance.

He was responsible for late-night watch tonight. He and the brothers were out patrolling the village for intruders, probably arguing the entire time.

------------------------------------

It had been a few nights ago, on the tail end of one of the tri-weekly resistance meetings in Impa's home.

"We have yet to do anything worthwhile!"

"What do you call worthwhile? Marching to his doorstep and sticking your neck out, begging to be killed?" Orin roared back.

"Just sitting here and talking isn't going to do anything!"

Jaime rose from his seat and narrowed his eyes at Impa and Orin. "Anybody can sit around and talk about when they're going to act, but if you never act then it's useless! We haven't sent ANYTHING off to fight him!"

"Because anybody who goes is going to be killed if we don't plan it right!" Orin shouted.

"Planning's all well and good, but I'm not going to sit around and watch my brother die of a plague HE sent to us!" Jaime yelled.

"And if Ganondorf dies? So what? You think that'll make him and all the other sick people get better, just like that?! You'll be killed and it will have been for no reason!"

"Dying for what you believe in is a great reason!"

"Let's keep this civil, you two," Impa interjected sternly.

"Civility isn't the answer right now! Did he show us any civility when he destroyed our lives!?"

"We will move in due time, Jaime! We haven't heard from Marya in several days, and we will not even consider moving in without her approval!"

"… Fine! F-FINE!"

Jaime stomped towards the door, stealing a candle off of a nearby bookshelf and glaring back at the adults at the table.  
"Stay here and plan all you like! I won't let my brother die because I was busy planning!"

He slammed the door, just in time to avoid being hit by a book thrown from the meeting table.

"Damn IDIOT!"

"Orin, calm down," Impa sighed, shaking her head.

"IDIOTS!! Him and the others! They think they can possibly make it inside the palace to do the job themselves? They're young, stupid idiots who deserve whatever comes to them!" Orin spat bitterly, having a seat at the table again and shaking his head in disgust.

"They're passionate in their beliefs… Foolhardy, but passionate. You can't blame them for being upset," Impa replied. "They want to show courage."

"There's a difference between being courageous and being stupid. They have that optimism that comes with youth… They have that stupid belief that if you really, really try hard and want it, you can do anything and have anything," he said darkly.

"It's not a bad belief to have."

"It is if they use it to throw their lives away," Orin sighed.

"It's a belief that a lot of people have," Impa pointed out. "I've had that belief before… Everyone has. From childhood, we're told that we can have anything and do anything and be anything. It's hard to realize that that isn't exactly true… but…"  
Impa drifted off and stared at the flickering candle before her.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't try."

"I think I disagree," Orin stood up again and paced around the room. "You shouldn't try for something that's impossible."

"We're doing just that right now," Impa argued. "This entire resistance is to stand up to a man who literally holds the power of the gods in his hands. Death is certainly an option. Though it might seem meaningless, to know that someone was willing to die for that cause is a real eye-opener for anyone, even the Evil King. He would certainly notice a boy of that age, dying for the sake of someone he loved and a cause he believed in…"

Orin paused, facing away from Impa and staring intently at the wall.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Evil King?"

"Not really… no," Impa replied softly. "I'm talking about a young man I knew when I was a little younger than Jaime. He was awkward, skinny, generally knew nothing about manners or protocol and yet he was a king of an entire race. He was the only one like him, too. And though he couldn't control his own life or his own fate, he set himself a goal that he swore he would reach, all for the sake of a love he couldn't have. Even as that dream got further and further away, he wouldn't stop… He ended up doing something terrible for the sake of that dream. His sin destroyed him and his goal. Even now, he must realize his mistake and his sin… But he hasn't stopped. Like the Evil King, I've dedicated myself to a goal I don't know I can reach… But even when people tell me it's impossible, I won't stop trying."

"The Evil King isn't capable of love," Orin replied, shaking his head. "He who watched his people slay the inhabitants of an entire city with no remorse. He who couldn't possibly understand the look in the eye of someone who's just watched their parents die right before them…"

Impa exhaled a deep breath. Oh, how wrong he was. And he hadn't deduced that her goal and Ganondorf's love were interconnected.

"And yet…"

He turned around and Impa caught a very familiar look in his eyes.

"Why is it when you speak of him like that, I almost feel sorry for him? You're an amazing woman, Impa…"

She felt a little cringe within her as Orin went on to say things Impa had only heard from a certain person before.

"When you talk about dying for love… I can certainly understand it. You're a miracle yourself. I think I could die for you any day."

He smiled at her behind his prematurely graying beard, looking suddenly more youthful than she had ever seen him. "Maybe someday, when all this is over, we can live the lives we always wanted to live but couldn't."

"Orin… I…" she stammered nervously. "I'm flattered, but… I see you as a close friend."

He paused.

"… Did I… I sounded like I…?"

"Yes," Impa replied slowly.

"Oh. Oh… my gods, I'm sorry. I didn't… I didn't mean to sound so forward."

"It's all right."

"No, it's not," Orin shook his head. "I can't be letting dumb things like that get in the way, for the sake of the village… I'm sorry. I'll leave now, Lady Impa."

"You don't have to-"

"No, I do. Goodnight, Lady Impa," he said, leaving as quickly as possible.

----------------------------

She stared at the flickering flame on the bedside table.

Poor Orin. He would never understand.

Her eyes were growing weak and heavy with all the thinking and reading. Unusually quickly, though… normally she got to lie for a while before even beginning to fall asleep.

She swore, she hadn't fallen asleep that moment… just closed her eyes for a quick second.

But then she faded from consciousness and was falling.

---------------------------

"Nice try."

Orin glared at Nicolas sternly, his arms crossed against his chest and a look that read absolutely no kidding examining every inch of the boy's face. They were standing just outside the set of buildings near the well, halfway through guard duty, and halfway up Orin's last nerve. Jaime had disappeared somewhere when his back was turned.

"There were two of you when I left," he said sharply. "Where's your brother?"

"He had to take a leak?" Nicolas offered with a weak smile. He was a bit paler than usual this evening, as he and many of the other villagers had suddenly taken ill with a strange malady. He had a bit of a cough, but at this point it didn't look serious enough to worry about.

"This is serious business! When are you boys going to take this responsibility seriously?! Honest to Farore, the entire village is depending on us tonight and you and your brother are busy playing games with me!"

"Nothing ever happens, Orin," Nicolas sighed in a bored tone. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Where is Jaime?" Orin demanded.

"Can't tell," Nicolas maintained.

"Where is Jaime before I cut you two off of eating for the next three weeks?" Orin said, dead serious.

"Okay, okay, jeez!" Nicolas coughed a little into one of his hands. "He went to the food store to steal us something to eat."

"What are you stealing for?" Orin groaned in disgust, grabbing Nicolas by his shirt and dragging him along on their way to the food store. "For the love of Din, you two are eating just as much as the rest of the village! Why do you keep stealing? If everybody stole food we'd all STARVE!"

"He wants me to eat more now that I'm sick!" Nicolas whined. "Let go! I can walk on my own!"

The two of them stopped outside a large, slightly run-down building halfway up the slope towards Death Mountain, just to the south of the potion shop. The door was wide open and from within, they could hear somebody rustling around in bags of vegetables.

"Jaime!" Orin shouted.

"Whaaaaat?" a voice groaned back.

"Get out of there! Dammit, you two'd let the whole village starve as long as you got what you wanted!"

"Nicolas is sick!" Jaime replied from within the shed, very indignantly. "He shouldn't have to eat the same slop the rest of us eat! How're the sick people ever gonna get better if they don't get some better food?"

The ground shook suddenly, a deep and penetrating rumble that sent tremors all through the village, almost knocking Orin and Nicolas over and sending Jaime crashing into a bin inside.

"Whoa! See, look how hungry he is?" Jaime yelled outside.

"What was that?" Orin burst out.

The tremors didn't happen again.

Silence fell across the village as the three of them waited for the source of the noise.

"What the hell was that…?" Orin repeated. "Jaime, get out of there… we need to go…"

That was all he got out before it happened.

--------------------------------------

Opening her eyes, Impa blinked in shock and laid still for a moment upon realizing that she had no idea where she was.

Her entire body felt like it was suspended from gentle strings above her, floating to infinity through this unfamiliar space. It looked vaguely like the night sky- black space, stars and speckles of light all around her, a glowing blue walkway beneath her, and a man facing his back to her from a few yards off.

She sat up, still floating in midair, and looked around quickly to spot anybody else here with her… no, it was only herself and that strange man.

"Good evening, Lady Impa," the man said in an old, hoarse voice that sounded like it hadn't been used much.

It was then Impa realized that she had slipped into a dream. This was a dream.

"This isn't a dream, actually," the man repeated, turning to face her.

"What?" Impa gaped. How had he read her mind?

The man smiled. He was a short man, aging and balding, with tufts of white hair alongside his ears, temples and chin. He was dressed in robes of burgundy and yellow, and there seemed to be a strange glow about him, a sort of comforting light that shone from within him and touched everyone around him.

"H-how do you know my name?!" Impa asked suspiciously.

"Don't be frightened… I can sense all thoughts in this place. I am not your enemy, Lady Impa. My name is Rauru… I am one of the Ancient Creators of Hyrule, the Sage of Light. You are at my home in the Temple of Light, deep in the heart of the Sacred Realm."

Impa didn't quite know what to say to that. She placed her feet on the invisible ground and bowed politely, just a little bit, keeping her eyes glued onto the older man before her.

"Why… am I here?" she asked curiously.

"I believe you're having a vision… A waking dream of sorts," Rauru said, scratching his chin and nodding. "Princess Zelda has them all the time, you know… I suppose it was only a matter of time until you caught on and had one of your own."

"I don't understand," Impa began slowly. "Why am I seeing this?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure. I must admit, I'm curious as to how you are seeing me right now… your time of awakening draws close, but it is not upon us…"

"Awakening?" Impa queried in confusion.

Rauru nodded slowly and gestured for Impa to come closer to him. "Are you familiar with the legend of the Hero of Time, Lady Impa?"

"'Descended from the Sacred Realm, the Hero of Time, wielding the legendary Master Sword will awaken the Six Sages… And when all six are awakened, their powers will restore peace to Hyrule,'" Impa recited almost robotically.

Yes, yes, that legend… Repeated over and over and over again the past few weeks. That was all anybody could seem to consider for an option to restore Hyrule. That was the only halfway viable plan right now, and it sounded like a fairy tale.

"Yes. That's it exactly… then you have a headstart and I have less to explain," Rauru smiled, motioning for her to follow him.

Suddenly, her feet seemed to gain a mind of their own and she was able to walk, without even thinking about it, drawing closer to the old Sage. Soon they were side by side, and Rauru was smiling sedately beneath his veil of whiskers.

"This is not a dream, Lady Impa. This is a vision," Rauru explained calmly. "As I mentioned… I am quite unsure of why you are seeing it now. Usually, the awakening vision can't even happen until the temple curse is broken…"

Something about the suggestion in his words made Impa's stomach cramp up into a tiny knot.

"Awakening?" she murmured again, her voice sounding echoing and far away in this infinite space.

"Yes… Destiny has left its mark upon you it seems, my dear," Rauru went on calmly, continuing his walk down the limitless corridor towards a shining purple light. "The survivor of the Sheikah race… Guardian of the Princess of Destiny… and now, the great Sage of Shadow."

"Sage of Shadow?" Impa pronounced reflexively, her throat tightening around the words.

The purple light ahead of them slowly began to grow, tingling against their skin and nearly blinding Impa with its brightness. All she could see anymore was Rauru up ahead of her, his voice still sounding clear as a bell but his body fading into a silhouette, slowly turning yellow with a glow of its own.

"Yes… traditionally, the role has been held by one of your race, Lady Impa. Seeing as you are the last of the Sheikah, even if you were not already the matron of Kakariko, it is not surprising that the duty has fallen upon your shoulders…"

"What…?"  
Her voice was broken and quiet.

"A great power sleeps within you, Lady Impa… You are the guardian of the place where the shadow spirits rest, the temple beneath the graveyard in Kakariko. You are the conduit through which the spirits of shadow can take the form of magic. You and only you can control them… You are one of the six who will join powers and defeat evil in Hyrule forever."

"It's not just a legend?"

"Of course not. Over the past few weeks, the Hero of Time himself has been venturing around this wasteland of Hyrule and awakening Sages. The Sages of Forest, Fire and Water have already been freed and your time is not far off," Rauru smiled. "And it couldn't happen at a better time! Forces are combining in this already turbulent land and something huge is about to happen. Hyrule will need all six of its great protectors to save it. You are the only one of us who can fully protect Kakariko Village and the souls of the dead, sleeping within the graveyard."

"I'd like nothing better than to protect my home village," Impa spoke up. "But if I already know I am to be the Sage… why must I wait?"

"The awakening call is impeded by the presence of evil. Right now, there is an evil spirit infesting the Shadow Temple, your temple, beneath Kakariko… A fierce, bloodthirsty shadow beast known as Bongo-Bongo. It had been stagnant and sleeping in the temple for many thousands of years, but in the time you were away from Hyrule it awakened and escaped into the village," Rauru exposited.

"As the Sage of Light, I was able to use a bit of my waning power to seal the monster away at the bottom of the well. I thought that the seal would hold for at least a few more centuries, but here, only five years later, the creature has somehow gained enough strength to shatter my seal and escape again, ten times more violent than it has ever been. The creature is, as we speak, gaining the strength to appear in the village and cause unimaginable chaos."

"How can we just stand here, then? That village is full of innocent civilians!" Impa gasped. "Send us back! We've got to help them…"

"We cannot," Rauru shook his head. "You haven't the power to battle this creature."

"I thought you said I was the Sage of Shadow," Impa queried.

"You will be. But you have yet to awaken. As long as that monster lives, your power is trapped, dormant, within your body. When Bongo-Bongo is weakened or killed, the awakening call will be heard and your powers will come forth so you can use them."

"So what do we do about the spirit, if I'm helpless against it?" Impa asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"You can't fight destiny, Lady Impa… the spirit will awaken… actually, very, very soon. There is nothing we can do about it but pray for the Hero of Time to come."

"You can't seal it up again?" Impa demanded.

"No. My power was severely weakened before, and now the last dredges of it are with the Hero of Time. He carries the power of all the Sages whose medallions he carries. Link already has four Sages backing him. He is a strong, clever young man who has already proven himself an expert at killing even the darkest demons the Evil King can throw at him. When all we Six are awakened, we will be able to assist him in the final plan…"

"What is the final plan?" asked Impa.

"It's simple… Using our power, we will open a gateway into the Sacred Realm and seal the Evil King within it."

Impa took in a short breath.

"Sealed?"

"Yes… And even the Triforce of Power is useless when facing the power of Six Sages AND the Sacred Realm."

The light vanished. The Sacred Realm began to fade around her, and in the darkness around her, she could see pieces of her house beginning to form and she was sitting again.

Rauru's voice still echoed in her head.

"Don't worry, Lady Impa… When the awakening time comes, you will be ready. Until then… Pray for the Hero of Time."

------------------------------------

She awoke suddenly to the smell of smoke.

Impa sat up quickly in her bed and gazed down at the lower floor of her house. The sleeping villagers were gone. She glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it had been almost five hours since she'd spaced out into her vision. The air was thick with black smoke and a strange, sickly, acidic smell burned in her nostrils along with the scent of charred wood.

Her heart began to pound a million beats a minute and she realized that perhaps Rauru had dropped her off again a few minutes too late.

She sprang from her bed and raced down the steps and to the doorway, flinging it open in time to see something that made her scream in horror.

The village was burning.

Vermillion flames leapt from every red rooftop, licking at the old wood and smoldering into ashes that fell to the ground like snow. People ran, screaming, carrying buckets of water scrounged from the bottom of the dried-up well, children screaming in terror, teenagers trying to comfort them or helping out with the adults.

And Impa was just STANDING there.

She sped down the steps and into a group of children surrounding a single adult, shouting, "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

"Lady Impa!" shrieked the distraught woman. "A monster, Lady Impa, a terrible, terrible monster!"

"Help us, Lady Impa!" yelled a little boy by her side. "Please, please help us!"

"Where are the others?" Impa shouted to the woman. "Where's Orin!?"

The woman clutched the boy towards her and shook her head. "Either working to douse the flames or trapped inside!"

"There are people still INSIDE?!" Impa gasped in horror. "Gods… Get the children to safety! I'll take care of things!"

"Oh, thank you, lady!" the woman, guiding the children off towards the village exit and leaving Impa standing there in shock.

Dammit, Rauru! He may have been a Sage and a kind old man, but his sense of timing was TERRIBLE! And to drop her off like this, defenseless, powers still dormant and no way to even defend against something like this…

Impa stood in the center of the square, hit with a terrible, thundering avalanche of helplessness. Buildings were burning, people were screaming on all sides of her and she was one woman! How could she possibly… where would she even start?

Something inside her head was buzzing just at the feeling still in the air since the disappearance of that spirit. Her heart was pounding and her pulse was racing at the mere afterglow of its presence.

Her powers were calling to her.

"LADY IMPA!! LADY IMPA!!"

A young, panicked voice picked up from a short distance away. Impa whipped around and saw a familiar face, pale as flour, staring at her from across the way.

Nicolas kneeled near the collapsed, fire-scarred ruins of a small building, tears pouring down his filthy, pale face as he waved at her. "LADY IMPA!! PLEASE! HELP ME! JAIME, HE'S-"

Impa deafened her ears to all the other screams and sped to his side. "Where is he?"

Nicolas pointed within the collapsed rubble and stumbled a few steps backwards, shaking his head. Shoving him off to the side, Impa scanned the smoldering building for a place to set her hands, finally grasping onto a heavy plank at an uncharred section and yanking it as hard as she could, making an opening. She took a deep breath and ducked into the ruined building, catching sight of an unconscious young man pinned beneath a few burning beams and sacks of grain.

She kicked the beams away and lifted Jaime by his shoulders, dragging him from the ruins and back out the way she'd come in as carefully as she could. She squinted to see in the thick smoke, but could make out the silhouette of another Hylian body within the ruins, too late to rescue.

"JAIME! JAIME!" Nicolas screeched in panic as Impa lay him down on the grass. "JAIME, NO, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!"

Jaime's face and hands were visibly burned from the fire, hot pink and swollen in the cold wind that whipped the burning village around them. His eyes were closed gently, almost like he was only asleep.

"JAIME!" Nicolas shrieked, kneeling next to his brother and grabbing him by the shoulders. "JAIME, NO, DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"Stay back!" Impa ordered in a voice she didn't even recognize. She tilted the older brother's chin back and placed her ear near his mouth, listening for even the slightest evidence of life. A soft, warm breath grazed her face and she sighed with relief.  
"He's alive, just unconscious," she assured Nicolas. "Give him some room, let him breathe!"

"Oh Nayru… Nayru, let him be okay!" Nicolas prayed in a panic behind her. "Oh Nayru, I didn't mean for it to happen! He was in there because of me! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Tell me what happened!" Impa demanded, fanning smoke away from Jaime's face with her hands.

Nicolas wiped the flood of tears, smudging the dirt on his face. "L-Lady Impa, we… we were getting our food from the storage a-and there was this horrible rumbling and then w-we couldn't breathe, and… and then the building exploded into flames and I leapt out of the door b-but Jaime and Orin…"

"Orin?!" Impa gasped.

"O-Orin and Jaime were trapped inside! Th-then the roof collapsed and Jaime was in the doorway, but Orin shoved him out of the way…" Nicolas was shaking his head as though in denial the whole thing could be real. "And the roof fell… a-and Orin…"

Impa felt her gut twist in despair. "Orin's dead?"

"Y-yeah… L-Lady Impa, I'm so sorry, I t-tried to drag him out, b-but… b-but he and Jaime were stuck in there and he got hit by the roof…"

It was his body she'd seen within the building.

Heartsickness and a strange awakening power combined as a heavy ache in Impa's chest. She took a few deep breaths and stood up, stepping away from Jaime and Nicolas and scanning over the chaos. Villagers surrounded the burning buildings, dumping as much water as they could on the out-of-control fires, screaming orders to one another, children crying and people still trapped inside shrieking for help.

Voices were yelling at her in her head. Her mind was a twisted, confusing torrent of sounds and sights and the thick scent of smoke and heat licking at her from all sides, panic rising from her depths and her heartbeat racing even faster. She felt dizzy and weak all at once, like she could have fallen over backwards and just passed out, waking up when it was over. Over like a dream… this had to be a dream…

What was it Rauru had been saying about that spirit? Bongo-Bongo was its name. It had been dwelling in the Kakariko Underground for centuries, yes, Impa knew the legends, but it had always been docile before and never attacked! In the years Impa was gone it rose up as a plague to attack the village, but he sealed it away… a holy seal… it couldn't break a holy seal… But it escaped on its own. How had it gained enough power so-

Power.

Power…

POWER!?

It hit Impa like a brick.

"Oh NO."

Her mouth dropped open. She could taste the flame. Her eyes blurred at the smoke and the gathering clouds. She could hear the screams of the dying and the wounded, Hylians…

In her hometown of Kakariko…

Her hideout of Kakariko…

The last sanctuary, Kakariko…

Where Ganondorf knew she was, Kakariko.

"JAIME!"

Jaime's eyes opened slowly and he gagged, gasping for air, clutching at his burnt face and moaning in agony. Nicolas leapt over him and started screaming all over again.

"JAIME! ARE YOU OKAY!? I'M SO SORRY, I'M SORRY!"

"Where…" Jaime gasped out, barely able to speak. "Where… Orin!? Where's…"

"He couldn't get out," Nicolas replied softly.

"IDIOT! He… he pushed… he knocked me out… out of the way…"

"Stop talking!" Impa said frantically, standing up and backing away from the two brothers. "Stay here! Make sure he can breathe, Nicolas, just… just wait, okay?!"

"Okay Lady Impa!" Nicolas called shakily.

Impa raced further into the village. She couldn't be helpless… No… It couldn't be… Ganondorf woke up that spirit. Ganondorf had sicced it on the village… Ganondorf had told it to spare her house. Ganondorf was murdering the villagers in a wild fire she couldn't stop, she was helpless to stop.

She HAD to stop it. She HAD to stop that creature!

Powers or not, the weight of things was crushing her. That monster was here because she was here. It was the thing keeping her from awakening as a Sage, it was the thing destroying her village and keeping her from being able to do anything about it.

"Where did it go?" she screamed into the night, for anyone who could answer her. "WHERE IS IT?! WHERE DID IT GO!?"  
"Into the ground!" a man yelled over his shoulder as he dumped water on the wall of a house. "It went into the ground!"

The Shadow Temple.

Impa reached back behind her and nodded with relief to feel her knife fastened securely into its holder on her back. It was her only weapon. It was the only thing she could do right now.

She HAD to awaken. She HAD to stop it.

The plan was insane, but it was better than nothing. She would head into the Shadow Temple as fast as she could. Somehow, somehow, her powers would have to awaken… Either by the wounding or weakening of one of the evil monsters inside, or SOMETHING, but once she awakened her powers she could use them to stop the fires, save the village, seal the monster away for good and protect Kakariko.

There was no excuse. No excuse for this to happen. When the man she loved proved a danger to even her home village, there was no way she could sit around any longer.

She could hear voices deep within her head, violent voices whispering to her.

_Yes… Do you hear me, Sheikah Sage?_

Yes… I know you can hear me…

Let me rip and maim them more… Burn… let it all burn, all except for you…

Master said not to touch YOU…

"Impa!"

A voice cut through the panic and she turned around, screaming in shock as she met a single blood-red eye.

"Sheik!" Impa gasped in relief.

"What happened?!" Sheik demanded, sounding equally panicked.

"The shadow spirit escaped from the well and attacked the village!" she said quickly. "I need your help! We've got all these people to rescue and no time to do it!"

"Did it escape?!" Sheik asked, grasping her wrist.

"We've GOT to seal it up!"

"How can you seal it up!?" Sheik (but obviously Zelda) gaped, "You haven't got that kind of power!"

"I will once I get to the Shadow Temple," Impa replied. "I've got to get to the Shadow Temple… I've got to seal it up!"

"The Shadow Temple!? By yourself? You'll-" Sheik argued frantically.

"I have no choice! I must! I've got to stop that thing before he uses it again!"

"'He' who?!" Sheik demanded.

"No time! Help the villagers!" Impa cried out.

"Impa-"

"SHEIK!"

A third, vaguely familiar voice echoed from the entrance of the village.

Impa and Sheik turned just in time to see a young man in green standing in shock near the village gateway. A blue fairy hovered over his shoulder, and a legendary sword hung from the scabbard on his back.

"Is that…" Impa murmured.

"Yes," Sheik replied quickly.

"I've got to go. Help him. Help the villagers. Please!" Impa ordered.

"Yes, of course!" Sheik finally nodded, readying a battling pose and staring into the well as purple mist began to belch out of it.

Impa nodded to her "nephew" and raced towards the graveyard as fast as she possibly could.

----------------------------

Sheik stared helplessly around at the fire and the chaos. He glanced into the well and saw the purple mist, evil, toxic clouds of darkness belching out from deep within the well, where the creature had grown and grown until it gained the strength to do… this.

Link appeared by his side. "What happened here!?" he screamed. "Who did this?! Ganondorf?!"

"Get back!" Sheik shouted, shoving him backwards as he took a few steps away from the well. Something within it was stirring.

"It's horrible… it's so horrible…"  
Navi was murmuring from over Link's shoulder, shivering at the darkness in the air. "Oh, it's so horrible… I can barely even fly, it's numbing, it's THAT terrible!"

A sweet melody echoed across the burning village, the sound of an ocarina. Storm clouds began to gather overhead as Link lowered the Ocarina of Time from his lips and heavy raindrops began to fall from above.

The villagers stared up at the miraculous rain and yelled in joy as the fires began to die down. Sheik kept his eye on the turbulence in the well as Link stuffed the Ocarina back into his bag and pulled out the Master Sword.

"Just wait until it comes out…" he murmured. "It'll pay…"

"It's too powerful right now!" Sheik argued. "You have to get into the Shadow Temple to…"

But at that second, an explosion from within the well sent the wooden scaffolding flying into the air and shattering into splinters on the ground a good twenty feet away.

Link and Sheik both gasped and took a few steps back, as a purple whirlwind rose from the well, an unearthly roar filling the air as the creature escaped from beneath the ground and burst out at its challengers.

Sheik went flying nearly as far as the scaffolding before he hit the ground and passed out with a scream far too high-pitched for a male, and Link was soon to follow.

-------------------------------------

The Shadow Temple was nothing if not dreadful.

A deep trench dug into the back of Death Mountain near the graveyard, it was a dreary, morbid little pit lined with human remains and cold, black marble. Voices whispered in every corridor, terrible, violent voices that echoed the screams of the dying in ancient and modern wars, victims of torture telling of Hyrule's bloody past and the darkness gathered within the temple. Traps lined its narrow, twisting hallways, and in the distance an unlucky traveler lost there could hear the moans of monsters.

And Impa was to be the guardian of this terrible place.

She assumed that a good deal of the horror in this place was only a result of the evil spirits dwelling here. The Sheikah who built it had been the guardians of shadow, mysteries of the mind and the earth, not the darkness she saw.  
It would have been horrible indeed for her if she hadn't been a Sheikah. The voices whispering through the temple were somehow able to guide her. She was currently crawling through a short tunnel where a voice was calling her to a shortcut.  
Bongo-Bongo's lair was within this temple, at the farthest, deepest end where it was safe from the light and from adventurers and holy men who had the courage to try and kill it. The voices of Sheikah were guiding her.

She reached the end of the corridor where she saw a grim face painted on the wall and a hole leading down into another tunnel along the wall. Really, the tunnel was cloaked over with a veil of illusion, but Impa could see through these weak mirages. An ordinary person venturing into this tunnel would see a solid floor, then take one wrong step and fall.  
Impa slowly lowered herself into the hole and found herself in another stone tunnel with a light at the far end. She crawled along until she came out in a caged area on one side of what looked like a tremendous room. The only door out of the cage was blocked by a huge stone, but she wasn't a Sheikah ninja for nothing.

Reappearing on the other side of the cage, she saw a bleak, black ocean of fog and shadows lining a long canal into the far side of this huge room. A ghostly, decrepit ship floated in the canal, with a dock on one side for anyone who would try to board it.

She climbed onto the deck of the ship, the voices yelling at her that Bongo-Bongo's lair was near. The spirit wasn't far away now… She'd already been wandering in here for a good hour and a half, and she was looking forward to escaping, one way or another. With acquired Sage powers, she could go in and out of the temple as she pleased. And dead, she wouldn't have to worry about the way out of the temple anyway.

The ghostly ship didn't move even as she stood at its helm, staring into the deep darkness on the other side.  
Then she caught sight of the Triforce mark.

She placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled Zelda's Lullaby, and the boat began to move lazily into the blackness.

--------------------------------------

Finally, she reached the great door.

It was a gateway seeming to appear out of nowhere in a room with no floor, sealed with thick chains and a skull-shaped lock. Islands of land made a pathway up to the door, and Impa could appear on the other side if she was sure there was, in fact, a room large enough to stand in on the other side.

She leapt across the islands of land and shook her head to rid herself of the voices shouting at her. All echoing the same words, "Shadow Sage, Shadow Sage". The temple knew she was here. It was trying to awaken her. She felt a tingling deep within her energy, no doubt the powers trying to bring themselves to life within her but held back by the curse of Bongo-Bongo still haunting the temple, behind this door.

Impa paused before the door and began formulating a battle plan in her head. Once inside, once she was engaged with Bongo-Bongo, all she had to do was weaken it… Break its seal on her powers, allow herself to be awakened. She would then use her powers to form a better seal on the creature, locking it deep within here and never to escape again until Link could permanently destroy it.

She certainly was taking this Sage thing well, considering what it meant. It meant that she and Ganondorf, though it had already been this way for some time, were now sworn enemies. As a Sage, she would be expected to fully devote herself and her new powers to destroying him and his evil. There would be nothing sympathetic about it. To hold back would mean disaster. It would mean failure for the entire attempt, a total failure to stop him.

But… it was easier, somehow. Knowing that despite the fact it would be her and her alone, there was a way. There was a way she could end his reign, destroy him, set him free.

Just like Marya had said. She would rather see him dead than like this.

It was worth it. Even though she would be the one to do it, she was grateful there was a way at all.

With an expression of resolve on her face, she closed her eyes and prepared to make the leap across the doorway, into the next room where Bongo-Bongo was waiting.

"I'll do it all for you," she said under her breath, sealing her dedication.

As she appeared on the other side, she immediately opened her eyes and reached around for her knife.

It proved useless, as there was nothing in the room.

It was a small, stone, cave-like room with a sort of glow about it. There was nothing inside. Her senses were screaming at her that there was an evil spirit nearby, but it wasn't here.

She narrowed her eyes in confusion and looked around for another door. No, that was it… There was nothing else there.

A little feeling of despair rose in her chest. Well dammit! Where was it?!

Until that thing died or was wounded, she had no hope of her powers awakening… None of it could start until it happened!  
How was she supposed to save him if the thing that was keeping her away from this power wasn't where it was supposed to be? It was supposed to be waiting for her, ready to battle it out to the very death, the Sage of Shadow versus the Shadow Spirit of Kakariko Village, the love of Ganondorf's life versus the creature he summoned to gain her, Impa versus the Triforce of Power…

"Impa."

She nearly leapt three feet in the air at the sudden voice behind her. Frozen in place, she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck slowly standing on end when the voice echoed in her ear and she knew without a doubt who it was. The same voice she had heard in reality so few times, but the voice that haunted her every dream and thought…

--------------------------------

Ganondorf stepped out from the shadowy doorway she had just entered, staring intently at her, not letting his piercing gaze drift from her eyes even for a second. So this is what he had become… he looked remarkably similar to the last time she'd seen him in person, except that he was stronger now and his hair had grown longer. And his eyes… his eyes… amber veiled in madness.

He clenched his fists together and took another step towards her, into the light, where a very disconcerting grin was plainly visible on his face, creased with wrinkles of anger and deep thought.

"Ganondorf!" she said suddenly, as though she was shocked to see him. As if she hadn't imagined this meeting a thousand times with a thousand different outcomes…

"They said I wouldn't find you, didn't they?" Ganondorf smiled at her again and came closer, raising his arms as though to embrace her. "But now I'm beside you at last… Nothing they can say or do can separate our love, Impa… Time and time again now, they've tried, the goddesses and the hands of fate… but even now, seventeen years after we were ripped cruelly apart… our love is alive. Can you feel it in your heart, Impa? I can feel it now… radiating from within me, all through my body, out, into yours and back… a love I've missed… a love I thought I had lost forever…"

"You shouldn't be here…" Impa whispered, at a loss for words. "You shouldn't be here, Ganondorf…"

"Absolutely nothing could keep me away."

She tried not to shudder as he ignored her words and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly, pressing her head into his chest with his fingers gently sprawled and running through her hair. Her heart was quaking with fear but she was somehow able to return his embrace, equally tight, clasping her hands together behind his back and feeling just how much they were sweating for the first time.

A melodic silence filled the room. The silence of a reunion that should never have happened… It was the sound of Ganondorf, lost in his ecstasy, holding his dearest treasure, the only thing he did not rule in his arms for the first time in years. It was the sound of Impa, loving him and his embracing, hating him and his madness, loving his touch and hating his title, loving his voice and hating his words.

He took an abrupt step forward and Impa almost stumbled backwards, but he held her up and took another step, one after the other until she was pressed against the wall behind her, still cradled in his arms. With an almost alien gentleness he placed a kiss on her temple that repeated and trailed down to her chin until she released a tiny, helpless sigh.

He spoke his next words in between tiny kisses along her cheek. "I was foolish and impulsive seven years ago when I last saw you, but now I have come to realize my powers… I realize my destiny now, Impa- and yours as well. We were destined to be together… It's clearer to me now then it ever was… I belong with you."

There was an uncomfortable amount of sincerity in his voice.

"I love you." Impa's first thought betrayed her and escaped as words.

"I love you more than anything else in this world… my throne, my people, my power… there is nothing I would rather have than you," Ganondorf sounded enough like his old self to force Impa into tears.

One slipped out of the corner of her eye and slid down her face. No. No, no, no… This was so wrong… How could she be doing this? She promised Zelda… she promised the whole village… she was against him…

It was supposed to be DONE. It was supposed to be OVER WITH! Her resolve was to stop him! Her resolve was to destroy him! Yes, she knew that she loved him, but she wasn't supposed to do this… touch him, cry about him, tell him how she felt… It was wrong! She wasn't supposed to ever see him again, until the final moment when he fell from his throne, defeated by the Six Sages and the Hero of Time…

He wasn't supposed to recognize her. He wasn't supposed to still love her. Marya had said it… Everyone said it! He wasn't supposed to remember her! He was a monster, a monster, a terrible demon, a King of Evil!  
It wasn't supposed to be like this! He wasn't supposed to show love anymore… He was a monster! A monster she HAD to stop!

The feeling inside of her was growing stronger. The voices in and around the temple were calling to her, more loudly… she was without doubt now that they were trying to awaken her powers fully, wrap around her and with their help transform her into the Shadow Sage. Fifth of Six. Sworn enemy to all evil that threatened Hyrule…

The evil that was embracing her and making her feel more whole than she ever had.

"You're more beautiful than I ever remembered," Ganondorf whispered in her ear. "I'd nearly forgotten what it feels like to touch you… it's the most wonderful feeling in the world, even better than the moment the Triforce grafted with my body and granted me this power… the power to control things… the power to be yours."

"Ganondorf…" Impa said again, lost for anything else she could really say.

"Look at me now, Impa! Remember? Seventeen years ago when I swore to you I would gain the power I needed to keep us together, and at last it is mine… Those who would stand in our way are dead. The meddling Hylians in Kakariko…"

Impa closed her eyes and tried to seal the nightmarish visions of the houses on fire out of her head. She prayed silently that the villagers would be all right…

"… My treacherous aunt…"

"Marya?"

"Yes. You met her, didn't you?" Ganondorf went on, pressing her head into his shoulder again with one broad hand. He ran his fingers through her hair, blankly caressing her ponytail as he went on sedately. "She tried to convince you to join her little rebellion… How I would have loved to see the look on her face when you told her 'no'… It probably would have been much like the look on her face when I killed her."

Impa swallowed heavily and stared upwards at him, hoping to force the tears back down where they came from. Ganondorf had killed his own aunt for thinking she was betraying him, proving that he didn't mind killing those close to him for fear that his rule was in danger… His reaction to her Sagehood would probably be ten times worse.

"They're out of our way now, and all that stands between us is that loathsome little Hero of Time… He'll be here shortly, I imagine. Running to save you… I'll take you away with me long before that, though… then we can watch from a safe distance while tries defending himself from my little pet down below."

Impa pulled back away from Ganondorf and glanced at the floor, catching a glimpse of a small crack in the floor for the first time. A sickly greenish-purple glow of light was visible through it. The monster must have slipped through it, into its lair below this very room!

She'd been that close to reaching it!

"Say something, Impa… Tell me what's in your heart… Your deepest thoughts… I've waited so long to hear your voice, and  
I cannot wait any longer…" Ganondorf said softly, reaching up and catching Impa's chin in one hand. He squeezed her hand in his other and lifted her face up to look at him, very gently.

Impa stared into his yellow eyes and could clearly see madness clouding behind their sentimental gaze. For a moment she thought she could see the Ganondorf she had loved again, but the way he was looking at her… no, leering at her made her feel squeamish and weak.

"Ganondorf…" she said again.

He let out a deep sigh and leaned in to kiss her for a good few moments. Impa felt her knees buckled and it took all her strength not to just collapse against the wall. She felt like an utter traitor when one of her hands wrapped up and around his arms to touch the back of his head and make sure he wouldn't pull away.

She was fighting an internal war between those two sides of her, the two voices. The voice that assured her that this was right, and the voice that screamed for common sense.

This man was not the man she loved anymore. He was insane and murderous, a vicious barbarian who'd thrown the entire kingdom of Hyrule into poverty and misery and was quite content with watching it rot away as long as he was still its king and he got what he wanted.

He was a gentle man… a man who wanted to be normal, a man who wanted to fit in… he wanted to be able to love whomever he pleased and be loved in return… He was a man willing to make sacrifices to please her, a man who loved her with every bit of whatever was left of him.

She remembered the dead face of Harkinian, the blood-splattered bodies of the guards, the terror on Zelda's face, the gutted remains of the marketplace, the starvation in the eyes of the Kakarikan children, the fire engulfing the buildings and the sick glint in his eyes as he'd done it all without remorse.

She remembered his sweet teenage face, the shame and humiliation in his eyes as the wagon holding him left the castle, the awkward grin he'd thrown her across the meeting room, the tapping of his boots on the metal crossbar under the table, and the shape of his napkins.

It was wrong. So wrong… all of it. Just plain sick and wrong.

She pulled away from him and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to disperse the tears that were forming.

"Why did this have to happen to us… to you?" Impa said, her voice breaking mid-sentence. "Why did it have to be you? Why did it have to be you, Ganondorf?" She stumbled away from him and back out into the room, shaking her head at the unfairness of it all.

"The stars were cruel when they chose our fate, Impa…" Ganondorf replied, squeezing both her hands in his, pulling her back away from the wall as though leading her away. "But we've overcome them… all we have to do now is leave this place. Leave those villagers to their fates… Leave that Hero to die in this temple… Just leave everything. Come back to my palace with me, Impa… I'll treat you like a queen. No… you WILL be my queen. We can live together on top of the world for the rest of time… The Triforce makes me immortal and I'll make you immortal, too… No one can tell us what to do anymore! I'm finally a god, Impa, and you will be my goddess…"

Impa leaned her head back and took a deep breath, fighting back more tears as Ganondorf pulled her towards him again.  
"Tell me you'll come with me. Tell me the past doesn't matter… tell me you'll fight fate with me, Impa!"

Fighting fate.

Impa took another heavy breath and turned away from him, facing the wall.

"Ganondorf… do you understand why I had to leave seven years ago?"

"Of course. I was nothing but an impulsive fool. You feared for your own safety from me… and I don't blame you for it. That was before I found the Triforce and became the god I was raised to be… before I understood why I was unworthy of you. But it's all changed now…"

"No. No, it hasn't. Nothing's changed," Impa interrupted him bitterly. She turned back around to face him. "Nothing's changed at all."

"How can you say nothing's changed? I was a weak Gerudo King, and now I am the king of all-"

"Do you think I cared about that?" Impa replied sharply. "Do you think I cared about what your position was, EVER? If I'd cared about that, I would never have fallen for you in the first place! I knew as well as you did that you weren't allowed to be with me, Ganondorf… your position or the powers you've held have NEVER mattered to me. NEVER."

Ganondorf's mouth dropped open a bit at her sudden anger. "Impa… if that's…"

"I left because yes. You were insane. You still are. You're insane. You've lost all touch of reality, Ganondorf… you lost it a long time ago. I knew something had happened to you when I first saw you again, seven years ago… I could barely see the man I'd fallen in love with anymore. All I saw was an angry man who'd come to seek revenge and take back what was left of his dignity… I could tell you weren't all that stable then, but I still wanted to believe you were the same. I wanted to believe that Zelda was wrong, Link was wrong, my entire gut instinct was wrong! But they were all right… and I was wrong… You proved me wrong when you murdered Harkinian and all those people… You proved that there was nothing left of the man I loved. No more kindness… no more compassion, no more empathy or remorse… Nothing left but a murderous shell. That's what you were then, and what you still are…"

Ganondorf was frozen, listening to her, still staring at her intently with those deep, boiling eyes.

Impa clenched her fists at her sides as she went on.

"I left with Zelda because you weren't the man I loved anymore. I left to protect her from you… You'd already proved that you didn't mind killing innocent people to get what you wanted. Harkinian was only the first… you killed your own aunt, Ganondorf. Your own aunt! When I spoke to her… she told me how much she loved you and missed you, the REAL you, the you that I loved as well… we were working together to find that you… and now she's dead and you killed her. Did you even listen to what she had to say? If you had heard what she told me, perhaps she'd still be alive… she told me she regretted every single day what she and the other Gerudo did to you. She regretted turning you into a monster every waking moment… she longed to be like a mother to you, and because of her one mistake, she never could. Did you listen to her, Ganondorf? Did you hear what she told me? Or did you just kill her in cold blood like you killed Harkinian?"

Ganondorf still looked calm, but something behind his face showed that he wouldn't for long. "Impa…" he said quietly.

But she wasn't done yet. She may as well finish what was on her mind before he was able to show his reaction… whatever it would be.

"When I came back, I was trying to defeat you. I did join a resistance. I'm partially running it… do you know why, Ganondorf? It's because I can't stand you anymore. I can't stand to see you like this, a murderous shell… I want to destroy your power and your throne and everything you killed for. I don't want it. I don't want any of it. I don't want to be a queen. You said you became a king for me… I don't want a king. I want a prince. I want that boy prince… The boy prince who told me he never wanted to become a king like this. Like the way you are now… That's the man I loved. I won't continue this madness any longer… you need to wake up! This is the truth, Ganondorf. The cold truth, and I swear it on my honor. I don't want this. None of it. I didn't want any of it… at all."

Then her voice drifted off into a short sob, and the unwanted tears spilled freely out of her eyes.

Silence pervaded the room.

Ganondorf stood, still staring at her in complete silence. The yellow pools of his eyes were stirring, though. Something was  
coming up from within him, within his mind. Something was about to happen.

"… you don't want me?"

"No," Impa repeated firmly, as she wiped her tears.

"You… don't want me…?"

"No."

"You don't want what I've become…? You don't want what I've killed for…? What I've sacrificed…?"

"No. I don't."

A vein in Ganondorf's left fist bulged out as he clenched both of them together until the knuckles turned white.

"Do you know… DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE GIVEN UP FOR YOU, IMPA?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH BECAUSE I LOVE YOU?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAD TO DO TO GET ALL OF THIS?! WHY I DID IT ALL?! I DID IT FOR YOU! I DID IT ALL BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU DESERVED BETTER THAN ME! BETTER THAN A WEAK, USELESS GERUDO PRINCE! YOU DESERVE A GREAT KING, IMPA! I HAVE BECOME THAT GREAT KING, AND NOW YOU SAY YOU DON'T WANT ANY OF IT?!" he roared, very quickly turning red.

Impa took a few steps away from him. Yes… this is what she was afraid would happen.

"Do you know what was going through my head when I killed Harkinian?! It had nothing to do with my mother or the treaty… IT WAS YOU, IMPA! I KILLED HIM BECAUSE I WANTED TO SET YOU FREE! I ATTACKED ZELDA BECAUSE IT WOULD SET YOU FREE! I TOOK OVER THIS KINGDOM BECAUSE IT WOULD GIVE ME THE POWER TO SET YOU FREE! ALL I WANTED WAS YOU, IMPA! THAT'S ALL THE REASON I DID ANY OF THIS! THAT'S THE REASON I GAVE IN TO THEM WHEN THEY HAD ME BEAT! ALL I WANTED WAS TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE THAT I COULD BE WITH YOU! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME?! HOW COULD YOU TAKE FOR GRANTED EVERYTHING THAT I'VE SACRIFICED FOR YOU?!"

"You should have known I didn't want that! If you really loved me, you should have known that I didn't want you to do any of those things… I loved Harkinian, Ganondorf, like he was my own father! I never, never wanted you to hurt him…"

"You loved Harkinian? You love Zelda? MORE THAN ME?! YOU LOVE THEM MORE THAN ME?! ME, WHO GAVE EVERYTHING FOR YOU? ME, WHO DAMNED MYSELF WITH ETERNAL POWER JUST SO I COULD HAVE YOU?! Did Harkinian kill his own family just to be with you?! Did Zelda enslave her own people to be able to touch you?!"

She took in a short, weak breath to try and keep calm as he burst out in anger at her.

"What is the measure of love, Impa!? The love between a master and a slave!? The love between a princess and her maid!? The love between you and I? What did Harkinian and Zelda ever sacrifice for you, Impa!? I gave everything! I gave you everything I had, my whole life… and it wasn't enough!? It wasn't enough for you!?" his voice was an incredulous rhetoric, his breathing quickening, his boots clicking heavily against the stone floor as he stumbled towards her with his hands out, grasping her around the arms and squeezing quite hard enough to hurt her.

"Ganondorf… please…" she murmured. "I've said all this before! You've never listened…"

"And all this time, when you were all I believed in," he went on darkly, pushing her back against the wall again, tightening his grip on her arms, slowly trembling in fury with his face turning redder and redder. "After all this time… it turns out I've been doing nothing but throwing my faith away… What ever could have made me think that there was someone else who understood me!? How long did it actually last, Impa? How long did you actually believe in me… How long did you actually feel safe around me? How long did you actually love me!? Did you EVER believe in me and love me?!" he snarled.

"I love you…" she whispered again. "I did, and I still do… I'll always love you…"

"DON'T SAY YOU LOVED ME, YOU TRAITOR!" Ganondorf roared, shoving her backwards and collapsing his weight on top of her.

Impa screamed and took in a deep gasp as his hands slid up her arms and rested at her throat, applying just enough pressure to where she knew he could do it if he wanted to… He could squeeze her throat, cut off her breathing, suffocate her or break her neck. His rough fingers trembled against her skin and in his eyes, she saw a look like nothing she'd ever seen before.  
She'd seen his hatred for Harkinian. She'd seen his bloodlust for Zelda. She'd seen that desperate haze as he chased her through the market. She'd seen the childish, almost pathetic look of the deepest love.

This… this was a look of the deepest betrayal.

"DON'T SAY YOU EVER LOVED ME! YOU DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD! LOVE IS TO CRY AND YEARN FOR SOMETHING EVEN WHEN YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! LOVE IS TO DREAM AND TO WASTE AWAY, LOVE IS SACRIFICE, LOVE IS DEATH, LOVE IS TO SLAY EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IN YOUR PATH FOR ONE PERSON! LOVE IS TO BLEED AND TO BURN AND TO SUFFER! LOVE IS SUFFERING! YOU, THAT I LOVE… IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT I SUFFER!"

Impa gasped, clenching her eyes shut and releasing a few more tears from their corners. "Love is protection, Ganondorf… Love is hope and protection and acceptance… Everything I had for you! Everything I have faith is-"

"YOU HAVE NO FAITH IN ME!" he replied viciously, gritting his teeth together and tightening his grip only the slightest bit. His eyes were torrentially spinning through a million emotions a minute, his arms were trembling almost convulsively like he couldn't control them. The tiniest motion could snap her neck… one little pulse could send evil magic sizzling through her body and end her life, just like that.

"Acceptance!?" he oozed, "That's a funny word to hear from you… You certainly did accept it well when I slaughtered all those people… You ran from me! YOU ABANDONED ME! You PROMISED to be with me, you PROMISED TO LOVE ME AND BELIEVE IN ME!"

"I do…" she whispered through tears.

"YOU DON'T!"

"I do… I believe in you… I believe you're still alive in there… I believe you won't hurt me… I believe you still want to be a good person, a good king… Please, don't make me wrong…"

"If you loved me…" Ganondorf snarled, pushing her down on her knees before him. "You'd love me the way I am… the way I've become after giving up everything for you… You'd let me take what I wanted… you'd let me do what I had to to make myself happy, now that everything is GONE…"

Impa struggled, pulling on his hands to try and loosen them from around her neck but his muscles were forged over years and years of brutal training, the scars on his back, and could not be budged. She gasped for breath as his fists tightened around her and her pulse raced, her eyes closed in a pained squint, her eyes leaked tears that trailed down her filthy face and ran down the sides of his hands. His fingers trembled even more at the hot, liquid sorrow touching them, traced his knuckles and jewelry and dripped into the floor, silent in the cold room.

"'Cry, cry, tears of blood, the only ones that matter! Release your sorrows through your wounds and wear a smile on a dry face!' Know that one? It's a Gerudo proverb… they sang it behind me when they tore my flesh off my back… Cry, cry… Release your tears… I'll squeeze every last one out of you… You stole them from me… I'll squeeze every last bit of me out of you… Open your eyes, Impa! Open those purple eyes, tell me that you love me, whore!"

Impa choked out as he shoved her hard backwards and she tumbled over, landing on her back and hitting her head on the cold stone, her legs folded up above her and immediately kicking and pushing to get him off of her. He snarled and pressed his thumbs, only his thumbs, harder into her throat, shivering as her rapid pulse beat against them.

"Tell me you love me, WHORE!" he screamed, something seeming to clog his own throat as he ranted on. "MAKE ME BELIEVE IT! SAY IT! SAY IT, IMPA!"

"I LOVE YOU!" she screamed in a choked whisper as he lifted her up.

"I KNOW YOU'RE LYING! I KNOW… Y-YOU'RE…"

Then all of a sudden, his hands released. Impa jilted away as he almost seemed to throw her down, falling back away from her and on his knees a few feet away.

She grunted in pain as she slammed into the hard ground, knocking her head and feeling skin ripped from her elbows as she skidded. She coughed for a moment, struggling to breathe uncontested and grasping at her head as the dull ache spread through her skull and made her vision blur.

He crouched in the corner, clutching his face in his hands and panting even harder than she was. Sweat poured down his forehead and fingers, and his voice was choked deep in his throat as he murmured almost incoherently.

"I can't… I can't… I can't do it… I can't stare at those eyes… I can't look away from them… I can't end their gaze… I can't…"

Impa sat up on her elbows and slowly began to crawl backwards and away, keeping her eyes locked on the pathetic man in the corner. He was trembling like a child, sweating, barely breathing in terror or some other emotion. He looked less like a great king and more like that pathetic young man she'd met in the courtyard all those years ago. But she knew much better than to let her sudden swell of emotion and his sudden hesitation cloud her mind. She had to get  
away. Get away fast, and now.

"I can't look into that face anymore… I saw it every night, every waking moment, every… every second of every day, I saw it… I can't look at it anymore! I can't!"

"Ganondorf…" she whispered, squinting remnants of tears out of her eyes as she continued to crawl backwards.

"Close them! Close those eyes, PLEASE! I CAN'T LOOK AT THEM ANYMORE!"

His hands sunk away from his face and for the first time, she could see his expression. His eyes were wide open but he seemed blinded by visions only he could see, staring at the floor as he fell and his fingers clutched the ancient stone, soaking wet hair hanging over his shoulder and what looked like tears falling freely.

"Those sincere… beautiful, crystal eyes… I dreamed of them… I dreamed of the love and the acceptance swirling within them every night… And you opened those eyes and I saw emptiness… An emptiness…"

"There is no emptiness in my eyes," Impa whispered, shaking her head. "There is no emptiness for you, Ganondorf, anywhere in my body. I'm hopelessly, helplessly devoted to you… Your life… your goodness… your smile, your eyes… Everything I've done, everything I try to do… it's to save you. All I want to do is free you, whether or not it means I'll ever see you again! I would rather us live apart and be free than trapped in this eternal spiral of death, damnation and misery… It's not too late. I will save you… I want to save you, I can save you… I don't want to lock you away anymore…"

"Lock away…?"

"There is still hope, Ganondorf!" Impa exclaimed breathlessly. "There is still hope… The Sages aren't awake yet, but they're well on their way… Stop this. Stop this now. You can end all of this, only you can… I don't want to lock you away! I don't want to have to help them destroy you, Ganondorf, but only you can save me from having to! Stop this… Stop it, end it all right now! Relinquish the Triforce and I'll never awaken, I'll never be forced to destroy you…"

"Awaken…?" he exhaled.

"I am the Sage of Shadow, Ganondorf… I am destined to protect Hyrule from any evil, any darkness… As long as you hold that Triforce in your hand, you are the darkness. I don't want to destroy you… I love you more than words could ever say… Relinquish the Triforce, Ganondorf… Save me. Save yourself!"

"The Sage of Shadow?"

His voice was completely different suddenly.

"You… are the Sage of Shadow?"

"I will be," she nodded.

"By what order?!"

"Fate," Impa shook her head, slowly beginning to stand up. "Please, Ganondorf…"

His fingers gripped at the floor until the knuckles turn white.

"You're a Sage, now? You're FORCED to defy me?! You're FORCED to destroy me?! EVEN AS YOU OFFER THESE WORDS OF LOYALTY AND LOVE, YOU ARE FORCED TO DESTROY ME!?"

"But I don't have t-"

Ganondorf interrupted her with a burst of unsettling laughter.

"Oh, it's a sick, sick, HILARIOUS play… We're on a stage, Impa, don't you see?! Someone SICK has crafted these lines and these actions! Someone is laughing right now! Someone finds it infinitely amusing at every turn to twist destiny against us! The Last Sheikah! The Lone Male Gerudo! The leads in this theater of tragedy! We're puppets on strings for the gods, Impa! They're laughing at us! They're toying with us, lowering the stars, making us think we can have them and control them and make them ours, then burning us when we get too close! Blinded, we try over and over again but the fires never cease! We're driven by a fuel too complex for stage directions, too difficult for an actor to portray! It's fate! It's fate that brings us here over and over again, trapped in a web of sins we can't undo… And isn't it ironic? Our sin… LOVE was our only sin! Isn't it hysterical?! Isn't it comedic, it's HILARIOUS, isn't it!?"

His voice dropped away and he froze.

Impa shook her head in disbelief and stepped towards him. "It's not funny…"

"It's WONDERFULLY funny…"

"It's NOT FUNNY!"

"It's HILARIOUS…"

"OUR LIVES ARE NOT A JOKE!" Impa screamed. "There's no such thing as blind fate! Our decisions are the things that drive us down these paths! Luck and fortune take their tolls but in the end, WE are the reason we're here! It was our own decisions that took us here, Ganondorf! Take responsibility and know that it's YOUR fault! It's MY fault! IT'S NOBODY'S FAULT BUT OUR OWN!"

"It's nobody's fault but the fates… It's a wonderful, wonderful divine comedy," Ganondorf laughed under his breath. "Well-written… it kills me. It KILLS me…"

She stopped in place at the tone of his voice in the last sentence.

"… And it will kill you, too…"

There was a bright flash of light and the floor disappeared out from under her.

Impa let out a terrified scream as she fell, before she could even blink, down the hole Ganondorf had opened beneath her. The quick acceleration whipped her hair in her face, and her breath was choked off by that toxic, acidic, stinging scent that filled her mouth and nose and made her sleepy and sick all at once.

She was falling, falling helplessly into the chasm below, still screaming, looking up to catch one final glimpse of Ganondorf's eyes, smiling sickly as she tumbled down. One hand reached up to him, the other clutched at her stomach if only to give her the sensation of touching SOMETHING rather than the free-falling air.

Then all of a sudden, something snatched her out of the air. Something roared, something tightened around her, something squeezed so hard on her waist that her left hand crunched against her side and she felt every joint pop. Her voice was stolen away, silenced by the pain, silenced by the knowledge that her hand and forearm were very much broken and she was still falling.

Suddenly, Impa slammed face-first into something hard but strangely pliable. A loud boom sounded and she caught the first sight of a purple, ghostly hand pulling back away from her, a blood-red eye in the darkness, sick drool sliding down an invisible mouth, and the steady rhythm of another hand banging on the drum.

Without having time to think, she rolled out of the way and avoided being smashed into the surface of the drum. She stumbled to her feet and backed away, clutching her wounded hand in her other arm and sizing up the monster before her, the infamous shadow spirit Bongo-Bongo.

It occurred to her, in the very back of her mind, that she was going to die. She was defenseless—no magic, no weapons, no left hand, no way out. The poisonous mist rising from the unearthly slime surrounding the giant drum was making her faint and dizzy, no one could possibly drop in to save her, and with this spirit still alive, her Sage powers were still sleeping deep within her reincarnated soul.

She stumbled to stay up as the spirit's hands grazed the drum, its single red eye glaring at her hungrily. A million thoughts were rushing through her head, none of them good ideas, none of them strategies, none of them of any use at all.

No hope, no hope!

One of the hands vanished in midair and Impa screamed again as her body was sent pitching forward, feeling the invisible fingers clutching around her and squeezing. She wriggled as hard as she could to escape, pausing as her wounded arm pinched between two ethereal finger bones, clenching it and rubbing her own bones together. She howled in pain and threw her head back in agony and hopelessness as the hand shook her right and left, up and down, in all directions, whipping her limbs around and pressing harder, harder, harder every second.

Impa's voice vanished again as her legs flailed, then cracked below her knee. Mind-numbing pain snaked through her veins, up through her body, silencing her every thought and sending her into a terrible oblivion of agony and torrential thoughts.  
So this is how she would die.

----------------------------------

Lady Impa of the Sheikah, born into commoner society in Kakariko Village. Orphaned in the Sheikah disappearance, the last one. Nanny and bodyguard of Princess Zelda, daughter of King Harkinian of Hyrule. Matron of Kakariko.  
Sage of Shadow.

-----------------------------------

As she slammed into the surface of the drum and the ghostly hands left her, between the screams of agony a grim smile trickled onto her face.

She would die as she lived… Always fighting the inevitable. Always the last one. The last Sheikah, the princess's last line of defense, the last person to stop believing in Ganondorf Dragmire.

A huge palm flattened over her, pressing her firmly into the drum skin. The other hand was high in the air over her, tightened into a fist, raised up and prepared to fall and crush her beneath its mate. The blood-red eye stared at her from the corner.

All around the sides of the wall, she could see the seal. A triangle with three circles around its outsides. It looked almost exactly like Bongo-Bongo's eye…

So this WAS fate.

She fell in love with an outcast boy, a foolish man, the Gerudo King of Thieves. He stole the Triforce from the Sacred Realm and became an Evil King. Against everyone else, she maintained that he was good. She raced to get the power she could use to stop him. Then he killed her.

And just before the fist hit her, just before the final moment passed, just before her life ended, something came flying from behind her, something round and metallic, something that slashed into Bongo-Bongo's single eye with the squelching noise of cutting flesh and a monstrous roar of pain. Then something exploded from the ceiling, a burst of black lightning and struck the creature and drove its hands off of her and away, far past her, back against the wall on the other side of the chamber.

She blinked in confusion, squinting as a stream of blood from a wound on her head leaked into her eyes and joined with the tears of pain. She couldn't sit up for her broken arm and legs, and could only gasp for air and watch as the lightning continued, raining down on the creature and forcing it back as a voice rang out clear through the room.

"YOU WILL OBEY ME!"

Impa swore she felt her heart stop.

"I AM YOUR MASTER! YOU WILL OBEY ME! GET BACK, STAY DOWN!"

Why!?

He entered her field of vision, eyes narrowed in fury at the monster in the corner, hands raised and sparkling with magic, the golden Triforce shining clearly on the back of his left hand. His cape flowed behind him from the force of his magic in the other direction, and for a good moment or so he really did look like a god.

Impa turned her head barely over to the right to see Bongo-Bongo cowered in the corner of the room, covering its eye with its disconnected hands as Ganondorf's sorcery rained down upon it. It was howling in pain, almost drowning out the furious sounds of his voice.

"DIDN'T I SAY TO LEAVE HER ALONE?! DIDN'T I SAY I WOULD PUNISH YOU?! YOU DEFY ME AND YOU WILL SUFFER FOR IT, YOU MISERABLE DEMON! GET BACK AND DON'T MOVE AN INCH UNTIL I SAY YOU CAN!" he screamed with rage.

The pain was almost putting her to sleep. She could barely tell what was going on with the unbelievable agony flowing all through her body. She lay like a broken doll on the surface of the drum, listening to the electricity and the howling as he drove the monster back.

Then there was silence.

She could feel a dull tingling from within her chest. That was it… Bongo-Bongo was wounded. His curse on the temple was weakened.

Her powers were awakening.

She heard footsteps coming in her direction and let out a few short breaths, waiting for it. So Ganondorf had regretted his cowardice in throwing her down for Bongo-Bongo to take care of. Now he was descending to do the job himself. Good. Fine.

But when he came into her field of vision, she didn't know what to think.

He was crying. Not just crying, sobbing. Hysterically. Tears poured down his face, contorted into a purely emotional look. Sweat dripped from his hair and hands, and he collapsed to his knees beside her.

"What have I done? What… what have I done to us?"

His voice was like she had never heard it before. Not since seven years ago, not since seventeen years ago. There was more raw emotion in his voice now than she had ever heard from anyone, ever.

"Ganondorf…?" she whispered, lost for anything else to say. The tingling in her chest was growing. It wasn't long now.

He lifted his left hand, clutching his wrist with the other one and held it over her. A golden light burst around it, and the pain was gone. Impa felt her bones mending themselves, the blood disappearing and the wounds sealing up in a matter of seconds.  
A few more seconds and he was cradling her in his arms, sobbing as he held her close and a soft purple glow came to her body as the power of the Shadow Sage began to awaken.

"Even given the chance to be a god… I destroyed it. I destroyed everything… I destroyed my people, my land, and when I almost destroyed you…" he drifted off, shaking his head. "I am no longer a man… I am a monster… A monster with only a fraction of this cursed divine power at my disposal… just a fraction, and look what I've done with it…"

She could barely move between his tight hold on her body and the tingling feeling numbing her senses, but she was able to raise her hand and touch the side of his face. "Ganondorf…"

"I want to undo it… I want to rewrite it, and undo it ALL… I broke it, I broke EVERYTHING… I broke my promise to you, I broke my promise to myself… I destroyed it, I destroyed EVERYTHING… I've got to rewrite it… I've got to undo it… I swear, Impa, I won't let it turn out this way! It won't end this way, I swear! I'll never stop… I'll never stop until I can change it… I'll change everything… I'll erase these sins of mine and we can finally, finally be together, alive, everyone, happy… alive… and happy…"

She was crying too, now, at a promise she knew he couldn't keep. "We can't…"

"We can… I'll make it so we can… I won't let it happen this way because I was so stupid!" he growled furiously. "I'll change it… I'll change it all… I swear, I will…"

Impa sat up, leaning on her newly healed legs, a purple glow engulfing her body and feeling herself begin to disappear. She was going back to the Sacred Realm… back where she had been with Rauru, to join the other Sages in the fight to destroy Ganondorf forever.

"It won't end this way," Ganondorf told her fiercely as he squeezed her arms. "It won't. I'll see you again. Wait for me… I swear, I'll change everything."

"I love you," Impa said again.

"I love you, and I WILL see you again. It WON'T end this way!" Ganondorf repeated.

She forced the kiss this time, and midway through it vanished into purple sparkles and then into thin air, leaving Ganondorf alone in the deepest pit of the Shadow Temple.

-----------------------------------

The rain clouds disappeared from around the village.

The people gathered around in a circle in the center of the town, watching the grayness draw back and vanish from above, the droplets of water finally fading out, the turbulent humming in the air finally gone.

Everything was quiet.

Nicolas stared at the sky, then at his brother. Jaime was bandaged up across his face and hands, sitting with the others, staring at their suddenly quiet surroundings.

"What happened?" Nicolas asked.

"Bongo-Bongo is dead," Sheik replied from nearby. He stood near the back of the group, arms crossed, feeling the energy of someone very familiar in the back of his left hand.

"D-dead…? How!?" asked a woman quickly. "It just vanished away! How could it be dead?"

"The Hero of Time has destroyed it," Sheik answered. "The curse on this village is lifted… There is an energy radiating around it. A divine energy, a powerful strength that could only be the work of a Sage."

"A Sage?" the people murmured.

"The Sage of Shadow has awakened," Sheik said, but oddly he didn't sound exactly pleased. "This village is now protected… The Sage of Shadow is a mystical being, a conduit through which energy flows. That energy connects to this village and protects it from harm."

"That's… that's wonderful!" an overjoyed man exclaimed. "Where is Lady Impa?! She'll be so happy to hear this news!"

"I think she's the Sage," Sheik answered honestly.

"Where is she? Where is Lady Impa?" Nicolas asked worriedly.

"In the Sacred Realm… when Hyrule is plunged in darkness, the Sages watch over it from the Sacred Realm."

"How will we tell her?" asked Nicolas.

"She knows… and we won't see her again," Sheik said under his breath.

"WHAT!?"

"Until the immediate threat to Hyrule is eliminated… Lady Impa will not live in the same world as us," Sheik told them.

An outburst rose up among the people.

"WHAT?!"

"But Lady Impa-"

"We NEED HER!"

"With Sir Orin gone, we need someone to lead us!"

"What about the resistance?! How will the Evil King fall if Lady Impa isn't here?!"

"We must speak with her! Where is she!?"

"You people are a bunch of babies!"

Silence hit the group, and they all turned to stare at Jaime.

"You're babies! Can't you take care of yourselves!?" he shouted.

"Jaime… you'll hurt yourself even worse!" Nicolas scolded.

Jaime shoved the others away from him and stood up, reaching up to touch the bandages along one side of his face.  
"Lady Impa risked her life to save us! Lady Impa ran into the Shadow Temple while the rest of us ran around like chickens with their heads cut off! Lady Impa is now living in another world, just to protect us from harm! And all you people can do is scream and whine about how we need her so badly to help us!"

"You ungrateful little…" a man began to step forward.

"Lady Impa disappeared so we would be safe! She believed in us enough to know that she didn't have to be here… We survived without her here all these years, and we can survive without her now! Impa and Orin gave everything for us… Now all we can do is ignore their sacrifices and whine and cry about how we need them. We have perfectly good people here. We have lots of work to get done, lots of repairs to do, and now we've got a Sage behind us, watching over us!" Jaime crossed his arms, cradling his injured hands in his elbows. "Now enough whining… We need to get back to work! For Orin and for Impa!"

"For Orin and Impa!" the villagers echoed.

They turned back to their work, leaving three people standing in the square, still idle.

"Jaime…" Nicolas murmured, a little shaky, "You sounded just like Orin just then."

"Did I?" Jaime replied with a sad smirk.

"Enough to convince me you've got things well in hand," Sheik added from behind him, walking by and setting a hand on his shoulder.

"Th-thanks…" Jaime murmured, turning away at the last second.

Sheik paused and after thinking for a moment, reached up and pulled away his veil, revealing his entire face and the scarred pink skin that marked where he had been burned during his lifetime.

The two brothers didn't even try not to stare.

"They get worse if you keep them covered," Sheik told him. "Give them lots of air once they heal up a bit… and they shouldn't scar as badly."

"Y-yes, sir," Jaime nodded.

"And don't be ashamed of them."

The brothers watched the young Sheikah walk a short distance away and then disappear. They glanced at each other and Jaime let out a short sigh as he rubbed his bandages.

"I really did sound like Orin, huh?"

"Yeah," Nicolas nodded.

"Damn. I'll never live that down," he sighed with a melancholy smile.

----------------------------------

"She's really gone…?"

_Only until Ganondorf's reign is ended._

"She knew running in there would awaken her… she knew it. She really knew it. And she still wanted to do it. She could have been killed by that horrible thing, and she still… she still wanted to be a Sage…"

_Well, she said she was devoted to the cause._

Zelda wiped a few tears from her eyes as she sat beneath a tree on Hyrule Field, still in Sheik's clothing but in her original body. She touched the Triforce mark on the back of her hand and smiled wearily.

"She ran in there knowing once she awoke, she would have to destroy him. She knew it and she still did it," she said, almost laughing.

_You actually doubted her?_

"I thought I did… But I don't know how I ever could have."

_You'll see her again, you know. You're guaranteed to._

"I know… but for the first time, she's not here to protect me…"

_On the contrary, Princess.  
That's why she did it._

_Neither of you believed it, but this proved it.  
Impa loves you both enough to throw her life away.  
_  
"And now, for her… I will save Hyrule."

-----------------------------------

Now, he knew.

There was only one way he could change it. There was only one thing that could save Impa now, one thing that could let them be together, one thing that could undo his mistakes, his destruction, his stupidity.

Ganondorf sat, pounding on his organ in his tallest tower, staring intently at the keys before him and spinning the plan in his mind.

One temple left. One last Sage to awaken. The clock was ticking, counting down until they would try to seal him away. The Hero of Time came ever closer, and with him, the knowledge of the Sages.

Only one thing could reset it, rewrite it all. Change history, send them back in time, make it so it all would be undone.

Now she was in the Sacred Realm and he lived for only one thing. The thing that would make him a master of that world, this world, both worlds, time. Only one thing was worth living for.

He would do absolutely anything to get his hands on it now.

The Triforce.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------

Well, now I've slipped into a nice state of depression. ::sniffsniff:: Not so dark now, is it!? Surprisingly, it's lightened up quite a bit in this chapter… I mean… after the whole "Tell me you love me, whore" part, anyway… ahem So! Next chapter we get a chance of pace, alternating between three POVs, two of which we have NEVER HAD BEFORE.

That's right, Nabooru and Twinrova are getting in on the drama next chapter! And after that, it's the FINAL CHAPTER. OOWEEOOO. Things are getting tenser and tenser. Now that Impa's a Sage, will she still be dedicated to sealing Ganondorf? Will Ganondorf figure out that Link and Zelda have the other Triforce pieces, and will he finally get his hands on it? Will Nabooru be freed from her prison and awaken as the final Sage? And will GG EVER RECOVER FROM WRITING SUCH HORRIBLE, DEPRESSING THINGS!? Stay tuned to NMD to find out!

-Now I'm off to write H,O and make poor Ganondorf look like a moron.

(PS: Rest in peace, Orin! ;; I feel awful, but I'm sorry… he just had to die.)


	9. Ten: Evil's Kin

**Never My Destiny**

The World's First (Serious) G/I!

By Galaxy Girl

A/N: GOOD GOD, HOW LONG'S IT BEEN! Well… sorry about that, guys. It's a little thing called "college".

In any case, congratulations to SilverHikari, who nailed last chapter's trivia question right on (several million years ago). Some of Ganondorf's creepy dialogue last chapter was based on two songs by the Finnish metal studmuffins Sonata Arctica, "The End of This Chapter" and "Don't Say A Word". They're a really awesome band, even if you're not really into metal (I'm not!) so I suggest checking them out. Plus, their lead singer is probably the sexiest man in the entire world. Woof.

Anyway, this chapter shies away from the serious G/I a little bit as it's told mostly through the perspective of Nabooru. We'll also get a little bit of a look at Link and Twinrova, too, but that doesn't mean I'm done torturing our two star-crossed lovers yet. And it especially means I'm not changing the story into a Link/Zelda. Seriously. I'm not big on that pairing. It's so overdone. And I'm a Link/Nabooru shipper anyway. Waahaahhahahaa.

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Evil's Kin

* * *

**

Corruption.

Corruption was always the root of the problem. Power and wealth and noble blood do not cause misery and pain. The root of suffering is the corruption of those who hold that power.

The golden power of the gods, the Triforce, was a neutral power. It took on the characteristics of whoever it touched—if held by a person of good heart, it would become a benevolent power to bless the land of Hyrule in its light.

If held by a person with a selfish heart, or a heart filled with selfishness or wrath, it would engulf the land in darkness and suffering.

Hyrule suffered because the Triforce had become tainted.

And now, he sought to change that which corrupted it.

* * *

The girl wiped the nervous sweat from her brows as she peered out from behind the target. The sun was hidden behind hazy clouds today, a perfect day to escape from the boring shadow of the fortress and play outside.

Her hands tightened defensively around the flag, a red silk scarf with a few torn edges from the many tug of wars held over its possession. She carefully tucked it in the top of her shirt, looking up again and taking a deep breath to make sure nobody could see her.

The horseback archery field was devoid of movement. It was just her, the flag, and one hundred yards to the other side where she'd be safe.

Slowly, quietly, she took a few steps out from behind the target, feeling the hot sand crunching in her shoes and around her feet. She stumbled a few steps, still wary of hidden watchers down the field, and broke into a desperate run.

An alarm went up from behind the other targets.

"SHE'S GOT IT!"

"You were supposed to be on guard!"

"Go get it, go get it! Run! She's over there!"

"Oh no you don't!"

The girl let out a burst of victorious laughter as she sprinted by the frantic guards of the other team, darting out from behind the targets that lined the course and chasing after her. One tripped and landed on her face in the sand. The girl already had a huge head start on them, and the safe zone was only 20 yards away now! This point was in the bag!

Her long red ponytail whipped behind her, grazing her neck and back as she relished the feeling of the wind rushing past her. She loved the sound of the sand kicked up behind her, a whooshing like the beat of a brush on a drum.

Victory was hers!

"Eat my dust, you- AH!"

All at once, someone slammed into her and knocked her to the side, forcing the words from her throat in a heavy grunt. The flag flew from her grasp and she hit the ground, sand stinging in her bare skin and a huge weight landing right on top of her. She yelled out in frustration and pain, grabbing at her arm where she could feel a bruise starting to form.

She rolled over beneath her tackler and took a few swings at him. "OW! Dammit, Ganny! That really hurt!"

"Watch your mouth!"

"I don't have to!"

"Watch your mouth and watch where you're going," her assailant grinned, reaching behind her and plucking the flag from her arm's reach. He held it up over her and waved it teasingly. "Caught ya, Nab! You lose!"

"Ganondorf, that was AWESOME!" a breathless voice cried out from behind him.

A small entourage of Gerudo girls, Ganondorf's team, appeared behind him, giggling and wiping sweat and sand from their faces and bodies.

"I told ya, you can't lose if I'm on your team," Ganondorf boasted, rolling off of his cousin and tossing the flag over his shoulder. "Good try though, Nab. You were all by yourself for the last half an hour and you still almost won."

"Well of course," Nabooru sat up, tossing her hair over her shoulder and dusting off her arms. "I'm the greatest!"

"Not as great as me, though," Ganondorf grinned, extending a hand to help her up. "Next time we'll be on the same team."

"Oh, NO!" one of the other girls groaned. "Don't do that! You guys are unbeatable that way!"

"Those games only last ten minutes," another whined.

"Girls!"

The kids turned simultaneously to see Marya standing near the gates, arms crossed.

"I thought we said dinner would be ready soon! That means you stay inside the fortress," she shouted, a scolding glare on her face.

"Aw, Mama, it's been sandstorming for a whole week! If I didn't get outside for a while I was going to rot," Nabooru called back, slumping down into a heap on the ground.

"Well, whatever the case, dinner's ready NOW. Get inside, you girls," Marya stepped to the side and waved in the direction of the fortress.

The other girls begrudgingly trudged back down to the fortress, kicking up sand and gossiping loudly about how "We were SO close, we almost won that time!" and "I was hiding for like, an hour. Nobody would have found me."

Nabooru and Ganondorf lagged behind the others, conversing quietly.

"You really hit me HARD, Ganny," Nabooru stuck out her lip in a childish pout, rubbing her arm. "I'm gonna have a bruise there."

"That's revenge for when you kicked me in the head last week," he replied shortly. "And besides, I can't help but play rough, Nabs."

"Why's that?"

"I'm a boy. Boys play rough," Ganondorf shrugged.

"Do they?" Nabooru honestly didn't know.

"I'm guessing so," Ganondorf didn't know either. "I mean… I'm… I didn't mean to hurt you," he sighed.

"Hey, don't worry about it, you were just playing," Nabooru shrugged him off.

"Pick up the pace, you two!" Marya shouted impatiently.

"Hold your horses, Mom!" Nabooru rolled her eyes.

"And I'm not a gi-irl," Ganondorf called in a sing-song voice, rocking back and forth on his heels. "You distinctly only called for the girls to come in."

"Don't be a smart-ass," Marya playfully tousled his hair as the two reached her side and she turned, leading them back towards the tremendous cliff dwelling just as the sun began to sink over the wastelands to the west.

* * *

The landscape of that wasteland remained largely unchanged, even after twenty-one years of periodic sandstorms and the burning hot sun scorching down on it day after day. Just west of the Gerudo Fortress, the Haunted Wasteland stretched on for nearly ten miles, a god-forsaken area of dust and storms that was rumored to have taken the lives of any non-Gerudo traveler dumb enough to head out there.

It was natural, then, for the ancient Gerudo to have built their most sacred and revered place, the Desert Colossus, on the far side of that wasteland.

Depicting the Gerudo mother goddess of the sand, the Colossus was a holy place to the Gerudo and jointly served as the Spirit Temple, legendary ancient home of the Spirit Sages and the resting place of some of the most sacred Gerudo artifacts.

It was not an easy place to feel welcome in. Beyond the elaborate and beautiful main chamber, the inner sanctums of the Spirit Temple were filled with death traps and obstacles that made even the bravest Gerudo nervous.

It didn't help that there were rumors circulating through the Gerudo people about the Iron Knuckles, mindless and soulless statues brought to life by ancient magic. Created to guard the treasures and the sacred ground of the Spirit Temple, they were said to be impossibly hard to stop or outrun.

What the Gerudo didn't know was that the Iron Knuckles were, in a way, not as scary as they were rumored to be. They were not statues that had been animated by magic.

In a way, they were even scarier. It was not ancient magic that animated those statues—it was the bodies of living Gerudo warriors imprisoned within the armor.

Koume and Kotake, Ganondorf's grandmothers and the elder witches of the Gerudo tribe, knew all about this. It had been their idea, several centuries ago, to create the immortal guardians of the Spirit Temple. Through a series of experiments and rituals involving Gerudo "volunteers" and the darkest of their black magic, the sisters found a way to brainwash and imprison Gerudo women inside the massive suits of armor, connecting their minds and souls to the animation of the armor as long as their bodies could hold out.

Once the Gerudo within the armor died of exhaustion or old age, her soul would remain within the armor and transform it, essentially, into the "soulless" monsters whose legends frightened generations of Gerudo children.

It was not a short process to transform a Gerudo into an Iron Knuckle. It was actually quite difficult. Koume and Kotake had had plenty of practice in doing this over the years, and found many subjects for their experiments in the "traitorous" or "dangerous" members of the tribe who Ganondorf deemed unsafe to be allowed a free mind. The Gerudo had no idea the blank, emotionless soldiers who walked among them were actually in preparation for becoming Iron Knuckles.

There was only one Iron Knuckle "living" among the Gerudo at this point in time. She used to be called Nabooru.

It was like she lived in a dream: a strange, blurry dream that she could never exactly grasp. Her mind was filled with feverish hallucinations, memories, flashbacks of things that had been, but she could not see past the fading laughter and the voices, past the sand and the sunset, past the illusions.

Her body felt hot and sticky with sweat. She could feel sweat clinging to her bare skin, soaked into something cool and made of fabric on all parts of her. She could detect the salt and the odor as she breathed in and out, impure air that was musty and stale. She could barely move and she couldn't control her movements. When the voices told her to walk, she would walk, but with no grasp of where or why.

Her body was weighed down by a heavy garment. It must have been armor… that would explain the sweat and the weight of it all. She could barely hear the sound of her feet scraping against the stone beneath her, the clicking of the plates as they slammed into each other on her feet and knees. Her axe was heavy but she could not set it down.

She could not speak. At least, not what others could determine as speech. As the memories and thoughts flitted through her mind, some of them would vocalize into soft moans or helpless cries. But never words.

When words came out, they knew it was time to fix her up again.

As the last of the desert sunset faded away in her mind, Nabooru opened her mouth and gasped in the sweaty air, letting out a short cry. "GGN!"

"Quiet, servant."

"We just can't have a peaceful evening at home, can we?"

Nabooru wriggled and writhed in her iron prison, her eyes clearing, the memory still trailing in her harnessed mind. The Iron Knuckle was trembling and thrashing as she moved about inside it, still crying out short, incomplete thoughts as syllables. "GGGN!"

Koume and Kotake appeared in the room from their private chambers, looking very displeased. The two witches waddled towards their slave and eyed her suspiciously.

"She can't have broken free of the last spell we cast already," Koume said, shaking her head with concern.

"She's growing more resistance to our methods, it seems," Kotake echoed her sister's thoughts and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at the squirming body visible between the cracks in the armor.

"That shouldn't be possible, Kotake… All the others who we'd kept under our magic for this long became exhausted and died! This bitch shouldn't be able to hold up under the strain of our spell," Koume burst out. "Much less find a way to fight it! You must have botched something last time."

"Me? Botched?" Kotake spat each word like the mere suggestion was poison. "I didn't do anything differently last time, Koume! If there's any change in the spell, it MUST have come from you."

Tears poured down Nabooru's face and she threw her head back, nearly sending the helmet flying off behind her. "GANON!" she screamed fitfully. "GANONNN!"

The two witches leapt back and stared at each other in stunned silence.

"She's breaking free again! She must be!" Kotake pounded her fist into her hand.

"This can't be happening! It's only been two weeks since her last treatment!" Koume stomped her foot heavily on the floor.

"Lord Ganondorf will be very displeased," Kotake spat.

"We'll have to plan on our last resort, then," Koume sniffed, snapping her fingers. Fiery chains grew from the sides of the Iron Knuckle's throne and up, wrapping around her hands and feet and binding her body still. Her head still thrashed back and forth, broken noises coming from her throat and occasionally forming into the name. "GANONNN! GGAANNON!"

"Lord Ganondorf requested we don't," Kotake warned her icily.

"He may change his mind when he hears about this. We'll have to send him a message."

"Have you forgotten? She's dead. We'll have to go speak to him face-to-face."

"Oh… yes," Koume sighed. "Quite a temper our grandson has."

Kotake grumbled under her breath as she turned back into the shadowy doorway that led to their chambers. "I'm going to hate to be the one to tell him this."

"Nonsense, Kotake… What's the worst he'll do to US?"

* * *

"I said you weren't to fool around with Nabooru's memory!"

Koume and Kotake jumped a bit as Ganondorf's voice rose, and they cowered beneath him on the stairs leading to his throne.

"Did I not command," he said in a very impatient voice, facing away from them and glaring at someone across the room that wasn't there, "That the Iron Knuckles be PERFECTLY obedient, and incapable of escape?"

"A-And the others have been behaving as you requested, my lord!" Koume spoke up shyly, raising an ancient and crooked finger. "They all require annual refreshment of the spells that keep them bound to the armor… But Nabooru in particular has been…"

"She breaks out of the spells much quicker than the others, my lord!" Kotake picked up where her sister left off. "Her last treatment was merely two weeks ago and she's already acting belligerent… thrashing about, screaming… SPEAKING…"

"Speaking?"

Ganondorf turned around slowly and raised an eyebrow at his elderly grandmothers, his face darkening. "All of the Iron Knuckles are able to speak, are they not?"

"Well, sir," Koume and Kotake said in unison.

"Nabooru was…" Koume began.

Kotake finished. "… having issues, my lord."

"Of what sort?"

"We were forced to take away her ability to speak several weeks ago. Her speech patterns indicated levels of thought far beyond those allowed to an efficient Iron Knuckle," Koume explained.

"She began screaming and muttering," Kotake shivered. "Horrible, treasonous things. Things that my lord would not want one of his servants to be saying."

"Such as?" Ganondorf waved a hand and gestured for an example.

"I believe one was, 'YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, GANONDORF YOU MURDEROUS SON OF A-'" Koume shrilled before Kotake closed a hand over her mouth.

"She screams your name frequently, my lord… it is most distressing to hear," Kotake nodded nervously.

"And what is wrong with a memory of my name?" Ganondorf questioned suddenly, pacing towards them. "My own cousin should know my name, shouldn't she?"

"My lord, if Nabooru continues to be allowed to… to remember, she will soon gain the strength to break free of our spell altogether. She is strong-willed, and it is already a struggle to keep her contained," Koume told him in a dark voice.

"Nabooru must remain under our control, my lord… She hates you more than any and all of the other races put together," Kotake added.

"Precisely what is it you want me to tell you?"

Ganondorf had sat down in his throne and cradled his head in one hand, glaring at the witches between his fingers. "Don't you think I know that? What do you want me to do about it? Order you to completely erase my cousin's memory? Simply because she hates me and wants to destroy me, somewhere within that empty shell of what was once her mind?"

"My lord… the seeds of belligerency and rebellion must be hunted down and destroyed before they are allowed to sprout," Koume spoke up.

"Nabooru is a powerful woman and you know it. She will not keep silent if we allow her mind to go free. She will defy you and try to defeat you at any opportunity."

"She is not the type for underground movements and secret plots, my lord. She will openly defy you… and she commands much respect among the Gerudo. If she were to influence them against you…"

"They are already against me, Twinrova."

Ganondorf looked up with a sneer that sent both witches a few steps back away from him out of sheer nervousness.

"The Gerudo are well aware I'm weak. They knew it from the moment I was crowned and it's all been a ridiculous façade since then, to keep it under wraps… You two have done abhorrent things to the people I'm supposed to be leading to keep it quiet that they are losing faith in me… and it has only served to worsen the situation. They already know I can only control a fraction of the Triforce's power," he said viciously. "It is no secret that I'm losing control in this kingdom with that GODDAMNED HERO OF TIME running around!"

"Lord Ganondorf, you are still the Great King!" the witches screamed in unison.

"You are a god! You were born the first male in a hundred years and you carry the blood of the next great god within you! You are our lord, our master, you cannot be defeated!" Koume gushed reverentially, bowing with a bit too much gusto.

"You are the great light of the Gerudo people, Lord Ganondorf! For centuries, we have been enslaved and forgotten by the Hylians and the rest of Hyrule, but you have taken us from the bottom to the very top! We own it all now, Lord Ganondorf!" Kotake joined her.

"We will NOT see you and the rest of our people fall from this heaven! The Gerudo must be kept in reverence of you and your greatness! If we lose them, we lose everything!"

"Treason against you will NOT be permitted! Nabooru must be kept under control like the others! Talk of rebellion must be silenced, as Marya was—"

"I told you not to say that name in front of me, EVER again," Ganondorf interrupted in a voice cold as death.

The two witches drifted off and waited for him to shift his murderous gaze away from them and towards the table before him.

Koume was the first to speak. "My lord, the other Triforce pieces cannot be far away! Once we have seized them and you hold all three of the sacred parts in your hand, it won't matter what the Hylians' silly legend has done to defy you! The Gerudo, the people, everyone will know what we know… that you are a god!" she consoled him.

"Do not worry about the Triforce. We have the matter well in hand. And as for Nabooru… perhaps my lord will find it more fitting if we do not erase her memory, but we instead destroy—"

"Don't touch her."

Ganondorf eyed them from behind his clenched fists.

"My lord, she is treasonous and must—"

"I think you've done enough to her already. Don't touch her."

Koume and Kotake eyed each other nervously. "My lord… what if she continues to break out of our spells?"

"Cast more. Leave her mind alone and if she dies, I will see to it personally that no immortality charm can help save the two of you from what I'll do as punishment."

The witches stared at their grandson in shock. "Lord Ganondorf…" they spoke up together.

"Now leave. I've things to attend to."

They shuffled out of the room as quickly as possible.

* * *

Ganondorf let out a heavy sigh and let his head fall back as he gazed up at the dark ceiling of his tower room. His hand tightened around the arm of his throne, and his eyes drifted closed.

It had all been so simple before she came back.

The clock was ticking. Five Sages were awakened and there was one more left to be summoned. Ganondorf had heard the news from one of his guards stationed outside Kakariko. The townspeople were all atwitter with the gossip about the Hero of Time and his secret travels through Hyrule, liberating temples and awakening Sages. Time was running out for him.

Koume and Kotake were afraid of rebellion? Ganondorf almost laughed. There was rebellion all around them. He'd been stupid and naïve to think otherwise… if he ever did think otherwise. He'd known there were people out for his blood a long time ago. When it turned out that his aunt was their ringleader, however; that had been a shock.

Seven years ago, near the beginning of his reign, Ganondorf had announced a loyalty cleansing within the Gerudo. Though most of the tribe followed him with the mindless obedience that was expected of them, he knew there were murmurs of disagreement from more conservative Gerudo that didn't think highly of his murderous coup d'état. There were interrogations and interviews… those who passed with flying colors were appointed positions as Ganondorf's personal guards. Marya had been among them.

Those who passed, but were less ready to throw themselves forward to die for him were given duties at the fortress itself. The dangerous ones, the ones who doubted him and disobeyed and even—of all offenses—disagreed with him were given to Twinrova to be made into "special" guards, the Iron Knuckles.

Nabooru had failed the loyalty test, but she was Ganondorf's own cousin and had always been strong-willed, so nobody had a second thought about it. Nabooru was different than the others. So she disagreed with Ganondorf's policies? So what? She was NABOORU.

Until the day…

It had come as quite a shock to the other Gerudo when Ganondorf punished Nabooru for her treason. It took less than three days from when they caught her for him to have decided, perhaps in a fit of fury, that she was unfit to have free thoughts of her own.

But even though she was the most wildly rebellious of the tribe, Ganondorf didn't kill her. It had never even presented itself as an option. In fact, he'd specially requested to Koume and Kotake that they only use a minimal amount of brainwashing on her. Her memories were to remain intact, no matter what.

It wasn't so hard to believe… Nabooru and Ganondorf had grown up together. She was his best friend, and his cousin. Almost like a younger sister to him.

But that day…

Nabooru hated him and he knew it. Their falling out seven years ago had happened so quickly he could barely even pinpoint the place where it started, but he knew full and well that somewhere within her imprisoned mind, Nabooru was filled with loathing towards him.

And Twinrova were right. Nabooru was a powerful enemy. She did command a lot of respect among the Gerudo, as Ganondorf's closest of kin. She was strong, a great warrior, intelligent and highly praised as a thief.

He stared at the carpet before his throne and remembered the outburst at his grandmothers. They were probably right, after all. If Nabooru were allowed free, she would be the loudest voice against him. She would march straight through the palace and kill him herself if she wanted to. There would be nothing to say or do to her to keep her calm and under his command.

It would probably be safer if she was dead. Or if she was left alive, but cleansed of her memories and personality and ingrained with unquestionable loyalty.

Marya's face floated through his mind. Her face in those last critical seconds of her life, as she'd implored him to spare her and rethink what he was doing. Close examination could reveal her blood still staining the carpet just a few yards in front of him…

Every time he tried to think about killing Nabooru, he remembered Marya and her expression. Days in the past, carelessly playing together on the archery range or on the roof of the fortress. Nights where they stayed up until dawn talking in their cots.

His right hand grazed the back of his left, the warm mark of the Triforce showing beneath his gauntlet. Two more pieces. Two more pieces and it could all change. The corruption, the greed, the selfishness and the bloodshed could all change.

He needed to keep calm. These feelings… this rage, they would go away. All he needed to do was keep calm until the other two Triforce pieces were located. Somewhere in Hyrule they were hiding within two other people… and his troops were out searching for them at that very moment.

Soon, all that was wrong with his life would be fixed. All he had to do was change it…

* * *

"Who does he think he IS?"

"He's getting too big for his britches!"

"Oh, surely, Kotake, he wouldn't DARE speak to us that way!"

"He's losing his mind, Koume. He MUST be!"

In a sealed-off chamber of the Spirit Temple, the two witches cowered around a morbid and black cauldron, brewing something black and bitter-smelling.

"After all we've done for him… after all the way he's come… he wouldn't DREAM of letting us fall again!" Koume stirred the mixture with the end of her broomstick, huffing disgustedly off to the side.

"That ungrateful little brat!" Kotake stirred the coals in the fire pit beneath the cauldron with her broom. "He's been acting like a fool these past weeks… The stress must be getting to him!"

"That must be it, Kotake," Koume agreed, shaking her head. "The Ganondorf we know would never give mercy to such a dangerous creature."

"He's sentimental, Koume," Kotake huffed. "He remembers fondly his childhood days with her."

"He would never think fondly of the times he spent with US," Koume sniffed, wiping away a tear from her tremendous eyeball. "After all those afternoons of tea and chatting…"

"We taught him everything he knows! We made him what he is! We are the ones who have given him the power to rule this kingdom-- not the rest of those greedy thieves and ESPECIALLY not that traitor aunt of his!" Kotake shouted, tossing a few coals into the mixture itself.

The potion bubbled and broiled, letting off a great exhalation of steam and taking on a strange and unearthly glow.

"Imagine a Gerudo King of Thieves shirking his duties and obligations for some outsider woman," Koume shivered in disgust.

"You think he's still caught up with that?" Kotake gaped in disbelief.

"He has not said or done anything to indicate as much in the past few weeks," Koume grumbled, "But he is behaving like a bratty teenager, much as he did back then…"

"It's unheard of. How could he betray his ancestors that way?" Kotake agreed. "Our beloved king he may be, but a fool at times."

"We did not give birth to and raise four generations of Gerudo thieves to watch them fall from grace again," Koume snarled. "I will not see him destroy everything we've worked so hard to accomplish!"

"Nor I! Whether or not he demands we leave the girl intact, she is a danger to our kingdom and she must be destroyed," Kotake hissed.

"Do you think he'll be quite angry, Kotake?"

"Oh, undoubtedly, Koume," Kotake tossed her head. "But he will see that we have only gone against his will to protect him and his kingdom!"

"Do you think he'd be so against it if we'd told him the truth about her, Kotake?"

"If Lord Ganondorf found out that his own cousin was the Sage of Spirit, he'd most certainly hit the roof, Koume!"

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"I suppose we shouldn't have been TOO surprised," Koume grumbled. "The Goddess of the Sand always passes her power to a Gerudo female."

"And it only makes sense She would choose the flesh and blood of the King of Thieves," Kotake added in a mutter, stirring the potion herself.

"I don't personally think he'd care whether or not she was the Sage," Koume rolled her tremendous eyes. "Lord Ganondorf is delusional when it comes to the select few people he cares about. He would still demand we keep her alive and keep her memories intact."

"Do you think Lord Ganondorf will care," Kotake cackled, "If we bind his dear cousin's flesh with the armor she is imprisoned in?"

"It would certainly put a stop to this rebellious nonsense," Koume agreed, rubbing her hands together. "She will have her memories, and we will have our servant. And Lord Ganondorf will never know the difference."

"He won't have to know," Kotake snickered suddenly. "Hohoho… How would he know she'd changed at all if she were never released?"

"Hehehe," Koume joined her, smiling wickedly. "Our brew is nearly finished… It should sit and thicken for several hours before we administer it to her."

Within the cauldron, the potion began to bubble softly.

* * *

Seated in her throne of stone, Nabooru had begun to cry out again. Her words were growing louder, more pronounced, with less of the labored grunts and moans that characterized the speech of an Iron Knuckle.

"GANONDORF!" she screamed through the echoing halls of the temple. "GANONDORF!"

Tears poured down her cheeks as she became aware of the dream she was trapped in. She grew desperate, thrashing within the armor, trying in vain to move her bound arms and legs and escape. She was aware of the memories flowing through her head now, memories slowly piecing themselves together into an answer to the burning question.

_Where am I? What happened to me? Why can't I move? _

_…Who am I?_

_I'm Nabooru… My name is Nabooru. I'm a Gerudo… _

_My mother's name is Marya. That's right… her name is Marya… _

_I live… I live in a fortress… No—A temple? Where… _

_Oh yes… I live in a temple now, because my cousin… Ganondorf… _

_Ganondorf? Ganondorf…_

"GANONDORF! YOU BASTARD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, pausing her struggle as the memories came rushing back.

_GANONDORF! GANONDORF… _

* * *

"Ganondorf?"

The door creaked open on rusty hinges, and Nabooru peered into the room nervously. Across the room, lying on his side on a cot was a dark figure, facing the wall and never moving except to breathe.

She barely made a sound as she stepped across the stone floor towards him, daring to call out his name again. "Ganny?"

Gently, she set a hand on his back and he cringed, letting out a short yell of pain. She pulled away and the dull torchlight showed the deep red stain of blood on her hand.

"Ganny! A-are you okay? What happened to you?" Nabooru had a seat on the edge of the cot and he curled up into a trembling ball, his face buried in his hands. "They didn't… they didn't do this to you, did they!"

"I won't do it…" he muttered in a throaty voice, worn out from screaming. "I won't do what they say… I won't!"

"What did they say?"

"I'm never to see her again… I'm to become the king. I won't… They can't make me! I won't do it!"

He rolled over slightly to face Nabooru, tearstains visible on his pale face. "You understand, Nab! You have to! You have to understand me, please!"

"Of course I do!"

"You won't make me… you can't… you wouldn't…"

"I would never make you do anything, Ganny!" Nabooru's eyes narrowed fiercely and broke her stare to glare at the crack of light streaming under the door.

"You're the only one I can count on… you and her, Nab…" he muttered again, gazing at her forlornly. "You're the only ones who care who I am…"

"Hold still… stop trying to move," Nabooru ordered him, stepping over to his dresser and taking a candle. She held it to one of the torches until it lit, then stepped back over to take a look at her cousin's wounds.

"Oh God… Ganny, your back is…"

He didn't say anything, but rolled over and buried his face in the pillow and groaned.

"Stay here… I'll go get some water and clean you up."

"They'll get you in trouble," he moaned.

"Like I care," she said shortly, and set the candle back in its holder before racing out the door.

"Nabooru!"

Nabooru stopped abruptly, and the water from the bucket in her hand splashed against her legs and soaked into her pants as she turned to face her mother. Her other hand clung tightly to a few rags.

"What are you doing with that?" Marya asked impatiently, crossing her arms.

"Ganny's hurt!"

"I know. You are to leave him alone," Marya said sharply. "He needs to learn to deal with pain. He was punished for his insolence, and you need to stay out of it."

"And what did he do that was so bad?" Nabooru demanded.

"Young lady, don't you dare take that tone of voice with me!" Marya's eyes slitted and she glared at her daughter. "You know how important it is that Ganondorf learns to act within his station! His behavior has been absolutely unacceptable and he must learn to behave like a king! We must continue this until he has learned his place!"

"His place?"

"His place, Nabooru. As the King of Thieves."

"He doesn't want to be a king, Mama," Nabooru hissed back. "If anybody had bothered to ask him what he wants—"

"This isn't a matter of what he wants, Nabooru!" Marya snapped. "I know what he wants! But the fact of the matter is that he cannot have it. Our very survival depends on it. He was born into his duty and we must ensure that he carries it out!"

"By beating the hell out of him!"

"You watch your language, young lady!"

"What's WRONG with you people? Why are you doing this to him, Mama? There MUST be another way!"

"Go to your room, Nabooru!"

"Make me."

"I said go to your room! Put that bucket down and go immediately to your room!"

"You can't make me!" Nabooru replied, glaring at her mother furiously.

Seconds later, Marya brought her hand across her daughter's face in a resounding slap, leaving a red mark that stung like fire.

"You also need to learn your place, Nabooru. You are to do as you're told," Marya said coldly, meeting her daughter's eyes with an expression that meant business.

Nabooru stiffened her arms. She would not touch the burning spot on her face—defiance wouldn't let her.

"I know my place, Mama… and it's helping my family."

She turned abruptly and marched down the hall without another word, throwing open Ganondorf's door and slamming it shut with her shoulder.

Ganondorf eyed her from across the room, weary eyes barely visible in the darkness. Nabooru set down the bucket and the rags and returned to the door, holding it closed with one hand and quickly doing up the bolts with the other.

"There. Let's see them get me out of here now before I'm good and ready," she said with a triumphant grin, retrieving her supplies from the floor. She had a seat on the cot behind him and motioned for him to sit up and face away from her. It took a moment, and he winced the entire time.

"Take off your shirt," she ordered, "However little of it's left. Now bend over."

There were several minutes of uncomfortable silence as Nabooru did her best to wash the whip marks on his back and shoulders, save for the water dripping back into the bucket as she wrung out the rags. "They're… not SO bad," she said cheerfully. "It's mostly a lot of blood… they'll heal better now that I've washed away all that stuff."

"She didn't want you in here?" Ganondorf finally muttered.

"No… she sent me to my room," Nabooru replied.

"Why didn't you listen to her?"

"Because. You're hurt. You need help. That's what family is for," she said with a smirk, patting an unhurt bit of his shoulder. "I don't know what's gotten into Mama… She never used to be this way."

"The others have gotten to her," Ganondorf said spitefully. "They can't stand the thought of me being their king. I'm too weak."

"No you're not."

"That's what they say. They say I'm weak and a fool. I'm not fit to be their king and they want Marya to fix me."

"You are too fit to be a king. Just not the kind of king those loons are used to," Nabooru said with a decisive nod. "You know… like Sultaroff the Great."

"My great grandfather," Ganondorf snorted. "He stole more than any Gerudo to date."

"And it's because he was a bloodthirsty maniac," Nabooru huffed. "The others don't understand that times have changed. We can't just run around and steal whatever we want from whoever we want anymore. We're not the barbarian horde they like to think we are. There are rules now. Their problem with you is that you understand that… you're progressive."

"Me? Progressive?" Ganondorf smirked.

"You believe in chivalry. Women and children should be off-limits. Killing is never appropriate," Nabooru nudged him with her elbow. "Taking lives and taking money and property are entirely different things."

"I think we should be able to love whomever we please…" he said under his breath, but Nabooru had been able to hear him.

"That's right, Ganny. They think you're the maniac."

Ganondorf couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "Dear Din. We'd better watch out for my wild ideals."

"See? You'll be a great king, Ganny, no matter what my mother and the others say," Nabooru assured him.

"I'm not going to be the king."

"Hm?"

"I'm not going to be the king," he repeated. "I have no desire to. There's a girl I'm going to marry and she's not a Gerudo. I'm going to leave as soon as I get a chance to."

Everything Nabooru had ever been taught was screaming in the back of her mind. Everything she'd always known about her cousin— he was "special", he was "the king", he was "a god", he must be respected and eventually refresh the bloodline…

It was all drowned out by that rebellious streak a mile wide. "Good for you," she grinned. "Good for you, Ganny."

* * *

In another hallway of the Spirit Temple, another human figure was making its way down the corridor as quietly as possible.

"I can't decide if it's hotter in here or out there," Link said under his breath to the faintly glowing fairy behind him. The young man wiped sweat from his brow and sighed, hands tightening around the hilt of his sword.

"I sense something nearby," Navi warned him. "Be on your guard, okay?"

"Am I ever not?" he reminded her quietly.

As the pair continued down the hall, the fairy the only source of light in between the torches, they continued listening to the ominous scratching noise up above them.

"Do you think Nabooru's still… alive?" Navi asked nervously.

"I hope so… Sheik didn't cover what happens if one of the Sages dies."

The scratching noise grew louder and closer, and both of them stopped in their tracks.

"It's closer now."

"I think it's coming from the ceiling!" Navi hissed.

There were a few tense seconds of silence before Link instinctively leapt backwards and avoided the pounce of a grotesque monster that dropped from the ceiling. It appeared to be a rotting hand, unnaturally enlarged and crawling slowly towards him with the aid of its fingertips.

"Gods, I hate those!" Link grunted, holding his shield defensively before him.

"LINK WATCH OUT!" Navi shrieked suddenly.

Sidestepping artfully, Link avoided the pounce of another Wallmaster as he lured the first in towards him. With a sudden charge, he brought his sword up and through the palm of the giant hand, sending spatters of blood streaming from the wound and all over the walls and floor. A second thrust assured that it was dead. It vanished in an unholy burst of light as the second hand began its attack.

Link dodged a mad attempt at a grasp, and whipped his arm upward to sever a finger. Somehow moaning and squealing in pain, the Wallmaster attempted to scamper off to recover before Link ended its life with another well-placed chop.

The corridor was silent once the second creature had vanished.

"Let's get out of here," Link said quickly, rushing towards the end of the hallway and towards the door. "The sooner we find Nabooru the better."

"I agree," Navi sighed and followed behind him.

* * *

_Link… _

_Oh yes… there was a boy named Link… I met him in the temple. _

_Why was I there anyway?_

_Ganondorf… he was my friend, wasn't he… _

"GANONDORRRRF!" Nabooru screamed out again, beginning to sweat in exhaustion.

* * *

"Is it true, Ganondorf?"

Ganondorf looked up from the table and eyed his cousin in the doorway. Her hands were placed on her hips and her hair hung nearly in her face. She was breathless from running.

"Is what true?" he replied shortly.

"You didn't really… You didn't really kill the Hylian king, did you?" she gasped.

The other Gerudo standing around him eyed Nabooru with apprehension. She was treading on dangerous territory all of a sudden.

"Leave us," Ganondorf said as he stood up, gesturing for the other Gerudo to leave the room.

Once they had gone, Nabooru continued inside and slammed the door behind her. "Ganny, it's not true. It can't be… you wouldn't do such a horrible thing. You didn't, right?"

"I did," he said maliciously, a smile sneaking onto his face. "I killed him. I held him in my hands and I ended his life with a spell."

"For the love of Din, WHY?" Nabooru burst out. "How could you do such a stupid thing?"

"You question my actions?" he hissed.

"I question your INTELLIGENCE! Ganondorf, the KING OF HYRULE! We're not talking some small two-bit ruler here! He's got allies! He's got guards and armies! They'll be here to annihilate you before we can tie our shoes and get our battle armor on! We don't stand a CHANCE against the Hylian Alliance!" Nabooru yelled.

"I've already put a dent in his guards," Ganondorf smiled again, an unsettling smile at the memory of those bloodstained bodies in the corridor. "And I'm not afraid of his armies… without a leader, they will have too many complications to mobilize very quickly. I plan to be rid of them even before they get that far."

"You're declaring war on Hyrule. That's just peachy," Nabooru spat with disgust, slamming her hand on the table. Maps and diagrams of the regions of Hyrule jumped from the force. "Did you even stop to think what would happen, Ganondorf? Or did you lose your temper again and kill him because you felt like it?"

"Don't you DARE question my motives, Nabooru! And I'd mind that tone if I were you. I am the Gerudo King of Thieves… and shortly, I will be the king of all Hyrule," he said in a dangerous voice.

"You're delusional," she retorted. "You're absolutely delusional. What makes you think you'll get away with this?"

"I have power, my dear. Power that even the King of Hyrule couldn't fathom harnessing…"

She realized he was staring, unceasingly, at his left hand.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked. "What's happening to you, Ganondorf?"

"I'm waking up," he replied, "From the little dream that your mother and her friends have raised me in."

* * *

Oh, she could remember that. Nabooru blinked in her unseeing existence, but shadows were starting to appear in her vision. She could make out the inside of the helmet.

How did she get in here, anyway?

She remembered doubting him. She remembered being scared and worried about him, worried about the man he was becoming and the things he'd done in those first few weeks before the war. She remembered the loyalty examinations. Yes… she remembered those very well.

They were all brought in to see him and he would question them about things he had done and what they thought of it. The others spoke what they knew he wanted to hear, but she'd spoken her mind. It didn't come as much of a surprise when she failed.

It didn't surprise her much when he finally decided what to do with her. Nabooru knew, Ganondorf knew, everybody knew that he didn't have the heart to kill her, or send her to become an "experiment" for Koume and Kotake. Ganondorf needed to be rid of his outspoken cousin, but not TOO rid of her. Somewhere where her influence over the Gerudo would be kept quiet, but somewhere where they would not be able to forget about her.

That is… Ganondorf needed to use Nabooru's influence. It was the only way he could get the other Gerudo to follow him as blindly as he'd like them to. She needed to live so she could give orders… but not directly.

"Nabooru… you will be in charge of guarding the Spirit Temple," Ganondorf finally decided one day before an assembly of all the Gerudo.

"The Spirit Temple?" Nabooru wondered out loud. "It needs guarding?"

"Certainly," Ganondorf said in a tone of voice that suggested he thought otherwise. "It is the most sacred site of the Gerudo, dear cousin… I wouldn't dream of assigning a lesser woman to guard it."

"My lord, I must protest," Marya had said quickly, standing up but keeping her head low to him as she did. "Nabooru is one of our finest soldiers… If we are to wage this war against the Hylian Alliance, we mustn't keep her isolated from the rest of the troops."

"On the contrary," Ganondorf replied without so much as a pause, "I think Lady Nabooru's presence at the fortress will be detrimental to the… morale of the others."

Nabooru snorted. "As you wish," she said with a smirk.

Marya eyed her nephew, then turned her attention back to her daughter. She frowned slightly, and bowed again. "My lord… may Nabooru and I please be excused?"

"Yes," he sighed, turning his attention to the others in the room. "Now… as for the rest of you, our attack on Hyrule Castle will take place in three separate waves…"

"You've done it now, Nabooru…"

"Done what?" Nabooru frowned at her mother and crossed her arms.

Marya glared at her as she shut the door to her private bedroom behind them. "What did I tell you about being respectful to him? You failed the loyalty examination! He's not going to put up with your disobedience for long!"

"Ganondorf wouldn't dare harm me," Nabooru tossed her head cockily and folded her arms over her chest as she sank into a chair. "He knows better than that."

"Does he? You haven't noticed he's changed?" Marya glared at her daughter viciously. "For Din's sake, Nabs… You must obey him! Please! I don't know what's happened to him in the last few weeks to… to make him behave this rashly, but… Please. For your own safety, you mustn't egg him on!"

"I'm not egging him on, Mama," Nabooru said sharply. "I'm showing him that we won't stand for his behavior."

"The thing is, sweetie," Marya leaned on her dresser and stared worriedly at her, "They will. They will do whatever he says."

"Why?"

"It's been raised into them… It's been raised into him. He knows they will obey his every command, no matter how horrible…"

"You're telling me that we are the only two Gerudo in the whole fortress who can think for ourselves? Nobody else sees what he's doing is wrong? Nobody else can remember the code! You DO NOT KILL. You DO NOT STEAL FROM WOMEN OR CHILDREN!"

"I know that!" Marya sighed.

"I know that too, and so do the others! We CANNOT be the only ones who disagree with him! What about Aveil! Lena! They can't possibly…"

"Perhaps, Nabooru, but the difference between them and you is that they are keeping quiet about it."

"What good does that do!"

Nabooru stood up and kicked a chair in fury. "Why is he doing this anyway! Ganny's not like this! He knows… he knows better!"

"I know he does, baby… but we can't… don't do anything foolish, Nabooru, I'm begging you," Marya sighed, hugging her chest. "I think you'll be safer at the Spirit Temple than here… if you stay quiet, perhaps he'll forget about…"

"He'd better damn well not," Nabooru snapped. "He KNOWS what he's doing is wrong. And if he doesn't, I'm going to remind him."

"Nabooru, don't…"

"Why not!"

"You're just going to get yourself in deeper trouble than you already are."

"He's my cousin, Mother! I'm not going to let him ruin… ruin himself!"

Marya sighed heavily and blinked back what could have been tears. "Nabooru… please don't get yourself killed. I'm begging you. Be careful, please."

"I'll be careful, don't worry," Nabooru tossed her head. "It's just the Spirit Temple… we've been there with Ganny loads of times."

"There's more to it than that if you're going to be living there," Marya said sternly. "Stay out of the inner chambers. That temple was built to protect the ancient, sacred treasures of the Gerudo… there's things in there you wouldn't believe."

"What, monsters? Big deal," Nabooru tossed her head again, sending her ponytail flying in her face.

"I'm not talking about the monsters," Marya said quickly. "I'm talking about the old witches."

"Those hags?" Nabooru snorted and crossed her arms. "I'm not afraid of them. They're just a couple of short, wrinkled bags of bones."

"They are incredibly powerful. They taught Ganondorf everything he knows about sorcery," Marya reminded her sharply. "They have helped to care for him since he was a child. They are devoted to him and they too, will not take lightly to you disobeying him."

Nabooru faced her mother with a deadly serious look on her face. "I'm not going to let it slide, Mother. I will not abandon him to damning himself like this. You know the real Ganondorf would never forgive us if we did."

"I know… but please, please give it a rest for a little while?" Marya whispered with tears in her eyes. "I couldn't bear to see you hurt, Nabs. Please, just wait a little while for him to cool off before you do anything."

"I will, Mother."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

* * *

The Sacred Realm was more than a location. It was almost a separate kind of dimension. It was in Hyrule and yet it was apart, almost like a pocket of space that no ordinary person could reach. It was the place where the three goddesses hid the Triforce when they ascended back to the heavens after creating the world.

Historians and theologians suspected that there were several small gateways into the Sacred Realm, used by the Ancient Sages for quick and easy travel around the land. These gateways were supposedly represented by elaborately carved stone plates that rested on the ground near each of the six temples of the land. However, they had long ago lost their power and were nothing more than decorations now.

The one true gateway to the Sacred Realm was the Temple of Time, still standing in the decimated Hyrule Castle Town square. It served as a conduit between the Mortal and Sacred Realms, and it was one of the only places in Hyrule that the truly faithful could hear the voices of the spirits echoing from the other side.

There were only a few mortals in the world rumored to have passed between the worlds.

The first of them was Ganondorf, who had descended into the Sacred Realm in order to take the Triforce in the first place.

The second, according to popular legend, was the Hero of Time—a legendary hero who could manipulate the barriers of time and space in the Sacred Realm to travel back and forth through the time stream.

The third, and the subject of much debate, were the Sages. As long as their respective temples were cleansed of evil and the spirits within could hear their calls, the Sages were able to pass between the sacred barrier and back and forth between the two realms.

But for the strongest connection to the Hero of Time, for the easiest transfer of power to his body and his blade, the Sages remained in the Sacred Realm during times of trial.

However, the Sages were unique in that they could somehow exist in both worlds at once. Though their bodies remained beyond the barrier, channeling power from the Chamber of Sages, their souls and their senses and their minds could still exist in Hyrule. They could see, hear, and touch things in the Mortal Realm without any effort at all.

* * *

And that's how Impa could theoretically hear and understand him as he prayed to the dark altar in his tower, kneeling before a flame and reciting the ancient mantras in his most treasured spellbooks.

"Great Din, Lady of Flame, Golden Goddess of Power, I beseech you. Guide me in my pursuits, bless me with your grace, pity my weak mortal soul and grant me your favor…"

Ganondorf sprinkled a handful of dust on the sconce, creating a brief flicker of light and a wisp of smoke rising from the flame.

"Great Din, Lady of Flame, Golden Goddess of Power, I offer my blood in your honor. Drink of my blood, accept my sacrifice, find me worthy of your gifts and provide me with your infinite knowledge…"

He picked up a dagger from alongside the many open books, and drew the blade across the inside of his arm. Holding it over the flame, he rose slowly to his feet and pulsed his fist, dripping a steady stream of blood into the fire.

The flames sparked, flickered, and began to roar. They morphed from the normal orange to a deep red and darkened to purple, casting indigo light across the chamber and illuminating his face.

"Great Din, Lady of Flame, Golden Goddess of Power, Patroness of the Triforce of Power, I am your humble servant. My most gracious praises to you and your divine sisters… I ask as your eternal slave, my lady, allow me to partake in your wisdom. Find me worthy, my lady; tell me where the other Sacred Triangles rest… Show me their carriers! Show me where Princess Zelda is hiding! Great Farore, Golden Goddess of Courage… tell me who carries your power in the Mortal Realm!"

The flames roared higher than ever, creating a vacuous wind that turned the pages of the books around him and he kneeled lower to keep from being drawn in himself. Ganondorf breathed heavily, closing his eyes to receive the forthcoming vision.

A child stood in the middle of a field… Hyrule Field. A white horse carrying a woman and another child ran by. A man on a black horse appeared…

Then the children were covered in shadow, and red eyes with Sheikah tattoos opened from the darkness.

What? A Sheikah?

Pale hands reached from the shadows and suddenly, he could feel them on his shoulders. He flinched at their touch—ethereal, almost imagined, but warm… very warm. They slid down his shoulders and up his neck to cradle his face, and the body the hands belonged to was suddenly kneeling before him, lifting his head.

Ganondorf opened his mouth to utter something, but stopped himself. Speaking would stop the spell… Interrupt the vision. He must keep his eyes closed and stay quiet.

Lips brushed his forehead— he inhaled shortly as he realized what was going on. Purple flames… shadows…

His eyes opened and the sconce burst, the flames erupting in a final flash of heat and light, then extinguishing into themselves and leaving nothing but coals in the sconce.

But in the split second before the flames vanished, he could see her. She was only a silhouette, a ghostly figure in the shadows that had stopped his vision and interrupted his ritual to the goddesses.

Such interruption could only be the powers of a Sage.

* * *

_Yes… yes, I knew that part. _

_Ganondorf was acting strangely and I was worried… _

_Mother told me to be careful. But I… _

_Why am I here? _

_That day… _

_Link was there… but he went into the temple, and… that day… _

_He found me… Oh… Oh merciful Din, he found me._

_My memory… I can remember that… _

* * *

The sand was hot and absolutely miserable, the way it sank around her to fill in and create a perfect mold of her body. It flowed into her mouth and almost her nose, but she had the foresight to stop screaming before that point. No matter how hard she struggled it was heavy and gritty, pressing her down—further and further she sank into its grip, well aware of the black magic taking her deeper and deeper…

The next thing she knew she was back inside the Spirit Temple. Her eyes opened wearily and closed almost immediately—the only light in the room was a brightly burning torch off to one side and her head ached something terrible.

"She's awake, Koume."

"I can see that, Kotake."

"You!" Nabooru burst out, knowing precisely who the voices in the shadows belonged to, even if she couldn't see them. Her mouth and throat were dry and parched and her skin gritty and chapped from her capture in the sand. She sat up—or tried to, anyway, finding her wrists and ankles bound to the altar on which she laid. "Ah!"

"Don't struggle too hard, pretty one," Koume said softly.

"T'would be a shame to work your lovely body into a tizzy," Kotake finished for her.

"Shut up!" Nabooru was quite annoyed, glaring daggers at the witches who'd put a stop to her plans. "Who do you think you are, doing this to me? If I get out of these binds, you rotting old bints—"

"We saw you in the temple with a child," Koume rasped.

"We heard you plot with him to steal the sacred treasures," Kotake added. "You are a traitor."

"A traitor? I, Nabooru the Lone Wolf? Don't be absurd!" Nabooru snapped. "What you heard was me performing my assigned duties! I'm in charge of protecting the temple from outsiders. That child was a foolish explorer and nothing more, and I took care of him as required!"

"Desperate falsities, Lady Nabooru," Kotake's voice echoed through the darkness. "Outright lies. We saw him enter our chambers. We are aware of your depressingly moral policies towards our people's ways…"

"But we cannot conceive any self-respecting Gerudo thief allowing the tainted presence of a male Hylian child in our sacred temple," Koume concluded with a touch of disgust in her voice. "The Silver Gauntlets are gone."

So the kid had gotten all the way through… what a little trooper, Nabooru thought off-handedly, while the other side of her mind got to work formulating an excuse for this.

"Were I not so concerned with protecting myself from the crones with whom I share the temple, I would not have slipped up in my guard duty," Nabooru replied airily.

"You arrogant little whore!"

"How DARE you speak to us that way?"

"And how DARE you accuse me of treason! You old bags have the nerve to approach me, the flesh and blood of the King of Thieves, and accuse me of plotting against him? If Ganondorf heard you carrying on like this-"

"Oh, cousin, lying is so unbecoming of a woman of your stature."

As though confirming her fears, another torch lit up and the silhouette of her cousin entered her field of vision, his eyes blank and a disconcerting smile on his face. By his side and finally visible stood the two witches Twinrova, Koume in red and Kotake in blue, both holding their broomsticks at attention like soldiers in the royal guard.

"I'm sorry to have had to take you this way, my dear… but you know I have a tendency to lose my temper when I learn unsettling bits of information like this," Ganondorf's voice was dripping with sympathy—false sympathy and she could tell it just by looking at him.

His eyes were slowly sparking into a dangerous fire, and Nabooru had a sinking feeling this is what her mother had begged her to avoid. "Ganondorf, you're letting them treat me this way!"

"I've ordered it, Nabooru. You're a traitor," Ganondorf said darkly.

"You don't really think that, do you?" her mouth fell open in shock and she took in a few short breaths.

"It's a shame, Nabooru…" Ganondorf approached her, lifting his hand and tilting the altar… no… a slab, upright so she could look at him. "Of all people in our tribe, I thought that you… you were really the only one I could always trust."

"You're joking! You ought to trust me rather than those shriveled hags!" Nabooru cried out. "Ganondorf, you don't honestly think I'd betray you? I would never betray you! I would never be disloyal to you!"

"Stop your filthy lies," Ganondorf seethed at her. "Or have you forgotten your unfortunate failure in my loyalty inquisition? Koume and Kotake have proven themselves far more trustworthy to me than you."

"You believe them!" Nabooru burst out, half-appalled and half scared out of her mind. "G-Ganny, you honestly can't—"

"I am your king, you ungrateful little bitch," he interrupted her in a deep growl. "I am your king and you shall address me as such!"

Nabooru had never once addressed Ganondorf as her superior. Not once.

There was a long moment of silence as she mulled this over, swallowing heavily and staring in disbelief. Ganondorf merely continued smiling at her and made a vague motion with his hand. "Koume, Kotake, if you would, please… prepare that which we discussed earlier."

"Yes, my lord," they said in unison and vanished, leaving the King of Thieves alone with his second-in-command.

For the first time, Nabooru felt herself growing frightened not for her cousin, but of him. This was the first time she had been face-to-face with him… Not the bright-eyed young boy in the archery field, tackling her and taking the last flag for himself. Not the silent shape in the darkness, barely making a whimper as she cleaned the blood from his wounds.

This man… he was the King of Thieves. The legendary Gerudo lord who'd slain the King of Hyrule and planned within weeks to take the rest of Hyrule along with his throne. This man slaughtered innocents to perform his own bidding.

She'd never think for a second to betray her beloved cousin, to plot around his ambitions and to renege on his trust in her. And she most certainly would not cower before him or shiver in fear at the thought of his wrath.

But this man, this King of Thieves, was an entirely different animal.

She backed as far against the slab as she could and never taking her eyes off him as he came closer.

"You can't be serious…" she let out in almost a whimper. "You can't be…"

"I suggest you answer everything I ask you to, Nabooru, for your own sake," Ganondorf threatened. "And if you lie to me, you won't believe how angry I can become and how much it's going to hurt you when I do. May I count on you going about this the easy way?"

She didn't reply, instead staring at him defiantly.

"Answer me."

She remained silent until he lifted his hand and unceremoniously backhanded her, sending her reeling and jolting to the side until her chains stopped her and she caught herself, wincing at the pain and stumbling back to her feet.

"Care to test me again?" Ganondorf leaned towards her, placing one arm on each side of her to trap her into looking straight into his eyes.

Nabooru faced him with the same disgust in her expression, breathing heavily and ignoring the red mark on her face. She mustn't cry… she mustn't touch the mark… Defiance wouldn't let her.

"If you think I'll spare you because you're my family, you're sadly mistaken again, Nabooru," Ganondorf warned her viciously. "On the contrary, I'm more than willing to bring you into a world of pain like you've never imagined. Now address me."

"Ganny," Nabooru spat.

She cried out as he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled, hard. "Who am I?"

"Ganondorf!" she squirmed in his grip.

"My title, you arrogant worm."

"_Lord_ Ganondorf," she finally sneered, struggling to move away until he finally released her.

"You will tell me the truth, won't you, Nabooru?"

"Yes, _my lord_," she snarled sarcastically.

Oddly enough, he seemed to accept this small victory and backed away from her, pacing slowly in and out of the torchlight across the room. "Now, according to the witches Twinrova, there were… strange goings-on in the Spirit Temple today. Perhaps you could help me to clear up this nasty little rumor. It seems there was a boy in the temple?"

"Just a child. A small child, couldn't have been older than ten," Nabooru replied hurriedly.

"A Gerudo child?"

"No, a Hylian. A young boy," she grew intensely nervous at the thought of what might happen if Ganondorf managed to pinpoint the identity of the bright-eyed kid who'd so boldly questioned her there in the foyer of the Spirit Temple. The boy she'd gotten to know in his short visit…

"Ah, I see," Ganondorf nodded as though this cleared something up for him. "But why was he there?"

"All young boys have thirst for adventure. You must understand the feeling," Nabooru replied casually. "I don't think it was too long ago you were a boy yourself, exploring as far into the Spirit Temple as you could go."

"Hm," Ganondorf smirked at her. "But I am the King of Thieves, Nabooru, and you are my first mate. The blood of the desert courses through our bodies. You and I have a right to be inside the sacred temple of our Gerudo ancestors. But a filthy Hylian child has no such right… in fact; his very presence there was something of an abomination against the Goddess of the Sand."

"So I've come to understand," she smiled, still as calm as she could possibly sound given the circumstances.

"Indeed… Curious, though, how a child that young could even reach the temple. How did he get through the desert?"

"I don't know," she mumbled quietly.

"How did a child that age survive the Haunted Wasteland?"

"I don't know. I ran into him inside, I didn't see him come."

"You are responsible for placing troops at the entrance to the Colossus, Nabooru. Where were your troops?"

"I sent them away."

"And why ever would you do such a thing?" Ganondorf's voice had adopted a dramatic tone of utter disbelief.

"I didn't want anyone else involved in what I was doing," Nabooru went on unabashedly.

"I see," Ganondorf drifted off. "Let's come back to that in a moment. I want to know more about this child… What was his name?"

"I didn't get his name," Nabooru snapped quickly. The very last thing she needed was Link getting dragged into all this business with Ganondorf himself. As long as he had the Silver Gauntlets, there was a chance he could carry out her wishes by himself…

"You spoke with him for quite a while. And you did not get his name?"

"No," Nabooru was vaguely aware of her pulse quickening as his voice and his words got more and more wicked. "You act as though I befriended the boy. I merely caught him trying to sneak into the temple and told him to leave."

"So you did tell him to leave?" Ganondorf sounded shocked.

"Yes. I told him the temple was no place for kids and told him to buzz off."

"Ah, truly dutiful of you, my dear cousin. And if it had ended here, I may have been a bit more relaxed when Twinrova told me the news. But it didn't end here, Nabooru… Somehow, that child ended up slipping past your guard and breaking into the inner sanctum of the temple."

"Yes," she replied without hesitation.

"And you told him about the Silver Gauntlets?" Ganondorf had placed a patronizing bounce in his voice, drawing back towards her with a very plain expression.

"Yes."

"And told him to get them for you?"

"Yes."

"Dear… my dear, dear cousin…"

Ganondorf stood before her, his arms crossed impatiently but his voice still carrying a calm and practiced lilt, an eerie lilt that made his words several times worse than they would have been without it. "I'm afraid I really don't understand what in the world you could have been thinking. Why would you ever think I'd be stupid enough to place you in that temple without proper supervision? Why would you ever believe I would miss something like this happening behind my back?"

"I suppose I didn't mind if I got caught," Nabooru replied haughtily.

"You've always been a brave girl, Nabooru. Remarkably stupid and arrogant, but brave to the very last," Ganondorf smiled at her and drew closer, leaning against the slab again and speaking softly into her ear. "On the other hand, I suppose I too, was stupid in assuming that even after all your past belligerence, even after your proof of disloyalty and your tendency to do foolish things in the name of morality, I was willing to forget about that and trust you enough to give you the position of my closest lieutenant."

"Don't worry, Ganny, you're not the only one to have made a dumb mistake," Nabooru whispered right back. "I was stupid in accepting your offer."

"And why do you say that?" he seemed to be almost daring her to speak her mind.

"Because I'm not like you. I may be arrogant and a fool, but I'm not so weak as to be dragged into assisting the murder of innocents in a pointless war for the sake of your vanity," Nabooru hissed, eyes boring furiously into his. "I broke the taboo. I let a child into the temple and I sent him to steal the sacred treasures for me, and I'd do it again, a thousand times, if given the chance. And if I had those Gauntlets on my arms right now, I'd break out of these chains and take your life without a second thought."

"You would betray your people, your position and your reputation all in an attempt to betray your own flesh and blood?" Ganondorf's voice was rising.

"No. But I'd do it all in a heartbeat to kill a monster like you."

There was a short moment of silence, broken first by the sound of the door opening at the far end of the room and second by a pointed sigh from Ganondorf.

"I see… I'm sorry you feel that way, Nabooru. Unfortunate…"

A tall silhouette appeared behind him, and a quiet giggle filled the darkness. "May I proceed, my lord?" a sultry feminine voice asked hopefully.

"Who is that?" Nabooru said suddenly, squinting to see through the shadows.

He ignored her question and shook his head sadly, his voice now laced with poison and loathing. "Unfortunate indeed. Despite my better judgment, I truly wanted to keep you around, Nabooru. My dearest friend, my sister, my cousin… I suppose it would be futile to ask you to reconsider? After all… You once swore to always support me. In the dead quiet of the night, in the darkness of my room, you swore to always be there for me…"

"I made that promise to the boy on that cot, the bleeding, miserable boy who sought to rule his people with love and liberty, Ganondorf," Nabooru felt tears stinging in the corner of her eyes. "The boy who wouldn't think for a second to take a life…"

"Are you still going on about that?" Ganondorf finally lost his temper and Nabooru flinched at the sudden rise of volume, though she had been expecting it for quite some time. "I should think that you of all people, Nabooru, would understand the intensity of my feelings towards that man! That king, his people! They took everything from me… absolutely everything!"

"Everything? Your mother, your dignity, your beloved outsider woman? Oh yes, quite a loss, but what about your people? Your family, Mother and I? And what of yourself?" Nabooru snapped. "These things are still here, Ganondorf, and you're the one risking them in the name of glory and power!"

She had barely taken in a gasp of air when a hand wrapped around her throat, an iron fist squeezing and cutting off her breathing. Seething yellow eyes bore into her, and a golden light from the back of his hand threatened to blind her with its brilliance.

"Don't talk to me about power, you insignificant little whore…" he snarled furiously. "You don't know the meaning, you haven't the vaguest inkling of what it means to have power…"

"Wh-" she choked and squirmed to escape his grasp, eyeing the light on his hand with shock.

"Power is not the ability to control yourself, not the strength of your swordplay or the influence you hold over others," Ganondorf breathed down her neck, lifting her off the ground and pressing her harder back into the slab. "Power is not ruling a people or making decisions that turn the tides of fate…"

Nabooru screamed suddenly as the female shape in the shadows released the lock on the slab and it fell backwards, flattening back into the altar it had begun as. She made an attempt to kick away her cousin's vicious assault but realized, with terror, the binds on her legs were tightening, squeezing hard enough to leave marks on her skin.

Ganondorf held her down, pressing her firmly against the stone with the force of his full weight, though only his hand and trembling fingers remained wrapped around her throat. She cried out again as the binds on her hands tightened enough to draw blood, leaving her helpless to whatever it was Ganondorf and that woman were planning.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, "Get the hell away from me! If you do anything to me—"

"No, no, my dear, that's not power either… Power mocks the very notion you take it for; the ability to take down an innocent man in the back alleys of the market and force him into procreating with you—it mocks the way I could do the very same to you if I felt like it, right now," Ganondorf stroked her hair in a way that made a chill of disgust run down her spine. "Power… power is much greater than ridiculous human wants like lust and violence…"

The room was getting brighter, more torches drawing in closer to the altar and the shape in the shadows becoming more and more clear. A tall woman, obviously Gerudo, oddly luminescent hair parted perfectly in two halves above her elaborate headpiece…

"The power I speak of is the very power of the gods. The ability to create, elaborate, downscale and destroy on a whim. To raise mountains and carve canyons, to draw rivers and widen lakes, to create life in the trees, the animals, the people… and to take them away just as easily. This is the power that was promised to me ever since I was a child… Since the day I was born into this anomaly, this cursed freak of nature, this body, everyone has told me of this supposed power of mine. I am the Gerudo Lord… the birth of a new bloodline, the chosen son of the Sand Goddess, the mighty King of Thieves… but no one has ever been able to give me this promised power. I lacked any power at all… I was nothing but a weak child treated as a god, yet unable to use my power for any significant purpose and especially not for my own personal happiness."

Nabooru's breathing had quickened as she was well aware something was going to happen to her. There was energy in the air, a strong energy that seemed to be flowing from Ganondorf, his presence and his words and into everything else. That light… the light was the source, but what in the gods' name was it?

Ganondorf lightened his grip on her throat and drew a finger up her throat and chin instead, as though examining her. He brushed a few strands of ruby hair out of her eyes and continued to speak.

"Since I was a child, I had realized this weakness of mine, this void where my supposed godhood was absent… I wondered constantly who would be the one to finally give me this power. My mother could not… nor could Marya. Nor could you, Nabooru, or any of the other Gerudo. All the wisest leaders of the races couldn't give it to me. Even Harkinian, the king of all kings, the ruler of all Hyrule as we knew it was helpless and could not give me what I sought. I finally realized, when I tried and failed to use this power of mine to save her… the one person I wanted more than anything else in the world… that nobody could give me this power. If I wanted it, I had to take it. And until I laid my hands on the Triforce, Nabooru… there was a feeling of helplessness, a terrible trapped helplessness, like I was locked away in the dark far away from light or love or anyone who could possibly help me…"

"The Triforce?" Nabooru inhaled suddenly, as the final puzzle piece clicked into place. "Th… Oh Din… holy shit, Ganondorf, you didn't…"

He smiled at her beatifically and wrapped his hand around her chin, his thumb forcing her head to tilt back and look him straight in the eyes. "Yes… I took it, my dear… And let me tell you, Nabooru… this power is wonderful…"

"You monster… You MONSTER!" Nabooru screamed. "You've damned us all! Every last one of us, you stupid, STUPID idiot! How could you… how could you be so stupid! Do you know what happens when a mortal touches the Triforce? Do you understand what you've done, you fool!"

"No, Nabooru, it is you who does not understand," Ganondorf snarled. "You've never known what it feels like to be a prisoner… you couldn't possibly understand the feeling of finally breaking free of your chains and seeing the world, unsullied by illusions and lies, the true face of the world for the first time… You poor, ignorant little girl. Perhaps you would allow me to help you understand?"

"If you kill me," Nabooru roared suddenly, "I swear to Din, Ganondorf, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. I'll come back from the grave to make you regret it…"

"Of course I won't kill you," Ganondorf assured her with a cruel smile. "I only wish to make you see… Perhaps, when you understand, we can go back to living like old times my dear, my friend… my sister."

"You are no brother of mine and never will be!" Nabooru screamed, cut off as he forced her mouth open with his thumb.

The woman in the shadows stepped forward, a beautiful and ageless sorceress and obviously some form of the ancient witches. She smiled and lifted a glass vial, thin and filled with some unknown liquid.

It was hot. It stung and tasted bitter as it slid past Nabooru's lips and down her throat, sending a terrible nausea and dizziness through her body as she coughed.

"When you wake up, Nabooru… you will understand," Ganondorf's voice was the last thing she heard as she slipped into a daze, a permanent daze that she would never wake from. "Sleep well, my dear… and dream of your freedom."

* * *

_But what happened after that?_

_… nothing… nothing's happened… _

_I'm still… I'm still asleep. _

_Dreams… but they aren't dreams, they're memories… this was my life, I'm still… still sleeping… _

She wriggled in her armor, truly feeling the weight and the sweat and the heat for the first time. She could hear voices… aged voices, the voices of those witches around her, voices that had ordered her around for ages… at least as long as she'd been asleep.

But she wasn't dreaming anymore. For the first time in years, she could see, hear, smell and feel. She was aware where she was and what was happening. She could not take the final step out of the dream, however, and could not control what she was doing.

But she could hear… really, for the first time, she could hear.

A door slammed open and a short figure rushed inside, robes rustling around her small frame. "Kotake!"

"Yes, Koume?"

"He's here!"

"What?"

The Ice Sorceress dropped the spellbook she'd been perusing and leapt to her feet, spinning towards her twin with terrified suspicion in her voice. "What do you mean he's here?"

"The Hero of Time."

"WHAT!"

"The Hero of Time is within our temple," Koume said in a tone that was not the least bit amused.

"Hohoho, sister, fear not," Kotake chuckled. "He is but a scrawny young man. Our temple is laden with traps and our little pets. And if he gets lucky enough to make it past those, one of the Iron Knuckles will destroy him."

"That's just it, sister," Koume interrupted her. "He has evaded the traps and killed our little pets. He has also destroyed the Iron Knuckles."

"WHAT! All of them?"

"Yes, he has destroyed all of them."

"That is not possible. He could not have gotten to them. This side of the temple is sealed from the main chamber. There is no way he could have broken our seal!" Kotake huffed,

"He appears to be wearing the Silver Gauntlets, which are more than capable of breaking that seal," Koume continued to be the bearer of bad news. "He waltzed right past our seal and into the inner sanctum, destroying all of our lovely Iron Knuckles as well as helping himself to the remaining sacred treasure, our lovely Mirror Shield. He is on his way to this chamber as we speak."

"Ridiculous," Kotake grumbled. "Why would the boy be coming here? He knows not of our presence."

"He is not searching for us, sort to speak," Koume hissed. "Do you hear the voices of the ancients echoing through the temple? Do you hear them crying out? They are searching for the Sage of Spirit, and the Hero of Time has come to help them find her."

There was a long moment of silence as both witches eyed the silent suit of armor seated on its throne.

"He is but a boy…" Kotake was still trying to argue.

"He is a Hero of Time, and there are five Sages channeling power to him as we speak!" Koume hissed. "Do you know what will happen if he awakens the girl?"

"Six Sages," Kotake filled in the blanks, under her breath. "Enough to fill out a rather terrible prophecy."

"'One will rise to oppose him from where he least expects it, and if the Sages are united, he will fall from grace and lose everything,'" Koume recited. The old witches had heard the prophecy themselves many times throughout their spells and divinations for the sake of their grandson. "What shall we do, Kotake?"

"We have no choice, Koume! We will end that boy here, in this room…"

"You suggest we fight him?" Koume sounded horrified. "He is no mere boy, Kotake!"

"We shall not fight him, Koume. Our minion will," Kotake gestured over her shoulder to the Iron Knuckle.

"We have not yet administered our new potion to her!" Koume warned. "She is still loose of our spell! Ordering her into battle now could be disastrous! She could turn on US!"

"We haven't the time to worry about such things!" Kotake hissed. "We shall order our minion to destroy him, and should the unlikely occur and she be released, we shall take her and leave before she can be fully awakened."

"And leave that boy running around in our temple?" Koume burst out.

"We are the witches Twinrova, Koume!" Kotake snapped. "We will deal with him ourselves should it come to that, and he will be SORRY if we must be the ones to take him out… We shall utterly destroy him and secure a future for our lord."

"I hope you're right, Kotake," Koume still looked uneasy, even more so as from outside came the sound of a chain lowering from the ceiling, and footsteps approaching the chamber door. "The hero is already here!"

"Get into position, Koume," Kotake said calmly. "We shall put this boy in his place, one way or another."

* * *

The pair were silent as the door slid open and Link stepped into a dimly lit room, fairly similar to several of the other chambers he'd encountered inside the temple. Stone columns lined a red carpet leading to another stone throne, upon which sat the most elaborate Iron Knuckle the young hero had yet seen.

And on either side of the throne stood a pair of elderly witches, short, shriveled and ancient, each holding a broomstick in her gnarled fingers.

"It looks like we have a guest, Koume," Kotake said, glancing over her shoulder at the intruder.

"Looks like it, Kotake," Koume replied, glancing over her shoulder as well.

"What an outrageous fellow he is to intrude so boldly into our temple!" Kotake said incredulously.

"We should teach him a lesson…" Koume echoed.

"Cut the theatrics, hags," Link said suddenly, pointing his sword in their direction. "I'm here for the Spirit Sage!"

"Trust us, boy, we know," Kotake hissed in annoyance, turning around to face him. "What an obnoxious boy you are!"

"We've heard of your attempts against our lord," Koume turned around seconds later, her voice irked to match her sister's. "Seen your handiwork, destroying the creatures he worked so hard to create and bring to life…"

"Word gets around fast," Link said casually. "But you'll get to see for yourselves if you don't let her go."

"Let who go?" the witches giggled in unison.

"Nabooru. I saw you take her, seven years ago," Link's voice was laced with poison. "She's a good girl… and I won't allow you to harm her any longer."

"Seven years ago?" the witches echoed.

"Oh… Kotake!" Koume burst into laughter. "Don't you recognize him?"

"The green clothes and the blond hair, Koume?"

"Yes… I do believe we're facing the outrageous little boy who intruded so boldly into our temple all those years ago!"

The witches burst into laughter, high pitched cackles that echoed eerily throughout the room and made Link cringe at the shrillness.

Kotake brushed white hair from her face and spat viciously, "My, how time changes things! He's grown taller and his face has lost all that baby fat!"

"But time can't change everything," Koume chuckled, repeating the same motion. "He's still scrawny, still a runt, and still too weak to do anything useful…"

"Stupid, too," Kotake snorted. "You honestly expect that we'd have left that traitorous bint alive after all these years?"

"If you're looking for the Sage of Spirit, you ought to start in a sand dune outside," Koume added wickedly.

"She'll still be there. Mummified by now."

"The sand sucked all the moisture from her pretty little skin."

"You're bluffing. She's alive and I know it," Link shook his head and took a few steps forward, weapons still drawn. "I can feel it. And you will let her go, witches, or I'll force you to."

"It is a shame you'll have come so far only to fall dead before us, Hero of Time," Koume smiled evilly.

"Yes, five out of six Sages? Not bad work at all, Hero. We commend you for your perseverance, truly… an admirable attempt," Kotake concluded.

There was an eerie moment of silence as they stared each other down.

"However…" the witches said suddenly.

Koume waved her hands and her body was suddenly engulfed in magic, her hair erupting into flames and her broomstick lighting up with the red light of her element. "You are a fool to think you can overthrow the Great Ganondorf, boy."

Kotake's magic wreathed her hair in a frigid blast of mist and ice, blue light covering her broomstick and her body. "Even with the aid of your ridiculous Sages and that worthless little sword. What do your people call it? The Master Sword?"

"That toy is a thumbtack compared to the power of Ganondorf, the Great King of Evil!" Koume cackled.

"And we shall not allow our lord to fall into oblivion because of a weak child like you!" Kotake added.

Link made a move as though to charge them, but stopped as suddenly, the Iron Knuckle rose from her throne and stepped forward.

"We'll leave you to play with our little minion, Hero," Koume said as she vanished in a burst of fire.

"We do hope you'll enjoy her company… she's quite a charmer," Kotake concluded, vanishing in a burst of her own ice.

An axe materialized out of thin air and fell into the Iron Knuckle's hands, and she began to approach him with her order sinking clearly into what existed of her mind.

KILL HIM.

Nabooru was helpless but to watch from her newly conscious state as her body willed itself into attack, swinging and lunging her tremendous axe at the agile young man as he ducked behind columns and barely missed being chopped in half.

"Link be CAREFUL! This isn't your ordinary Iron Knuckle!" Navi shrilled from over his shoulder. Link gave a determined nod and didn't take his eyes off her for a second, examining her and her armor, planning his strikes, where the blade could do the most damage.

KILL HIM.

_Link… _

_Is that you, Link? _

_Yes, it's him… damn, look at how that kid's grown! Look at how he moves… much more impressive than that tiny little guy slashing away at those Armos in the main chamber… _

The Master Sword's blade glanced off her armor and nearly threw Link off balance, though he recovered in time to duck under a vicious strike aimed directly for his head. The Iron Knuckle followed through with a punch, but Link was barely able to block it with the gauntlets on his arms, gleaming silver…

"This one's not getting hurt! It's like the Master Sword can't cut through her armor like it could the other ones!" Link backed off as fast as he could, even as the Iron Knuckle continued her mindless march towards him.

"I said it's not an ordinary one! I don't understand what could be different about it… The other Iron Knuckles were suits of armor animated by the soul of a Gerudo who was imprisoned in it until she died, but this one…" Navi tried to reason her way through the strange signals her magic kept giving her. "It's almost as though…"

* * *

"See, these Gauntlets… They'll allow even a little guy like you to push huge objects and throw them around like they're made of paper."

"Really?"

"I ain't messing with you. You must notice that huge wall blocking the eastern passage… it's a seal, but the Silver Gauntlets can break that seal."

"Why are you telling me this? Why should I trust you?"

"What makes you say something like that, kid? Didn't your parents ever teach you to respect your elders?"

"You're a Gerudo, just like Ganondorf…"

"Kid, you've got a lot to learn about people… Ganondorf and I are nothing alike. I'm gonna give it to you straight… I want those Silver Gauntlets so I can get into the eastern side of the temple where his subordinates live, and figure out what they're up to. If you crawl through this little hole for me, run inside and get those Gauntlets, I'll do you a favor."

"Just a favor? Lady, there's gotta be hoards of monsters in there…"

"I'll make it a really good favor, all right? … Oh, jeez, don't look at me like that, kid! You're too young for me! I'd request you wait a few years before I repaid you like that."

"I'm not exactly sure I know what you're talking about."

"Well, good… All for the best then. You'll get it when you're older. So what do you say, do we have a deal?"

"Yes… deal."

"Excellent… smart kid… I didn't catch your name."

"Link. My name's Link."

"Good. Smart kid, Link… I'm Nabooru. And for the time being, we're in this together…"

* * *

Link eyed the creature with a sudden realization, gritting his teeth.

"She's still alive in there."

"What?"

"I don't know, but I have a sinking suspicion I know who she is… How do I get her out of there?" Link asked, circling between pillars to impede the monster's progress towards him.

"That's really dangerous, Link… this isn't your average spell you can just break without consequences. You could accidentally kill her trying to release her from magic this powerful!"

"I know, I know, but we don't have a choice! Tell me where her weak points are, where the magic is most powerfully binding her?"

"I don't know!" Navi said with frustration. "I can't… If you give me a minute I can try to pinpoint where the armor is connecting to her, but…"

There was a slamming noise and the sound of stones hitting stone, as Link barely snagged Navi and pulled her out of the way in time to miss another deadly axe strike, so powerful it destroyed the column they'd been standing behind.

"A little haste there, Navi!" Link broke into a run across the room to give them more time to figure things out.

"Her helmet!" the fairy screamed. "Try her helmet! Knock it off!"

"I'm on it!" Link crouched like a cat and waited for the Iron Knuckle to turn and face him again, then sprang into a full run, dropping his sword arm down below his knees for the proper leverage…

The Iron Knuckle raised her axe and was seconds away from bringing it down and embedding it in Link's ribs for the fatal blow…

Then there came the sound of metal striking metal and something hit the floor behind the Iron Knuckle, followed by the louder sound of an axe dropping out of armored hands.

This light…

Nabooru gasped in horror at the sudden brightness, striking her wide-open eyes suddenly enough to cause physical pain to her. The cool, stale air of the temple room hit her in the face as hard as an avalanche and she stumbled.

This feeling…

Magic was emptying from her body, draining out from her shoulders, arms, hands, fingertips, legs, feet and toes. A stagnant heart started to beat again, coursing suddenly warm blood through every inch of her and her senses returned in full force.

No longer held together by magic, the aged straps of her armor began to snap. Her shoulder pieces went limp and slipped down, dragging the arm and gauntlet pieces with it and clanging to the floor. Her chest piece and waist guards were soon to follow and she tripped suddenly, stepping out of her boots and stumbling to the ground… oh, the ground, she could touch it and feel it…

She lay motionless on the floor of the temple, catching fresh air in her weary lungs and trembling, shivering in the cold. Her body was drenched with sweat and she was quite a sight… her lovely pink silk clothes wrinkled and stained, her skin pale and clammy and her hair in a terrible knot. Weak fingers clutched at the stone floor and tears leaked from her eyes when she began to realize…

She was awake. She was awake, she could see… hear, feel, smell and taste… she could think! Memories came flooding back to her, more memories than the turbulent ones she'd experienced the past several hours.

"Oh my gods! Look, you were right!" a high-pitched voice let out.

"Nabooru! Oh gods, Nabooru, are you all right?"

Touch… human hands. Fine young fingers, pale and white grasped her shoulders and lifted her to sit up off the floor. She clutched with her own hands and clung to the body that lifted her, wrapping her arms around it and holding it close, feeling warmth, softness, the only warmth and softness she'd known since… since seven years ago. Tears coursed freely down her face and her voice was moaning of its own accord, weakened, worn out from disuse, but at last she found words. Other words besides his name and the threats she'd scream upon remembering what he'd done…

"Link?" she coughed. "Link, is it really…"

He was still scrawny, she noted, his teenage body quite devoid of any impressive amount of muscle. Kind blue eyes looked into hers as he lifted her face with concern. "Are you all right?"

"_Do I damn well look all right_?" Nabooru snapped, though she didn't really want to sound cruel.

"Link, give her a break! She's got to be terribly weak!"

"Oh, jeez, here…" Gloved hands placed a glass bottle in hers and helped her lift it to her lips. "Drink this. You'll be all right, just have a little potion…"

It tasted warm, like hot soup but with an oddly sweet herbal flavor that slid down easy, much easier than the last sip of potion the witches gave her. As it sank into her body she could feel herself becoming more energized, and her breathing slowed back to a normal pace.

"I'm glad you're all right," Link said calmly. "We were worried about you."

"We?" Nabooru's head was still spinning and she didn't feel she could really think straight yet.

"We… the Sages. And Navi and me, too. We saw the witches take you under the sand, and… frankly, we thought you were dead."

"I feel like I was dead," she moaned, clutching her forehead. "Wait… the witches… oh Din where are the witches?"

"They left… they'll be back, I'm sure, but they think you're ripping me limb from limb right now," Link smiled uneasily. "We've got to get you out of here so they won't take you again."

"Like hell they'll take me again!" Nabooru burst out, allowing Link to help her stand up but quickly falling back to her knees. "No way… I'll never… never, never, they won't do it…"

"Sadly mistaken again, Nabooru."

With simultaneous voices and two bursts of magic, the witches reappeared in the room, hovering near the ceiling on their brooms and looking extremely annoyed.

Nabooru let out a quiet scream and Link stood, drawing his weapons again. "Leave her the hell alone…"

"Oh, how annoying!" Koume cursed. "Do you know how long it took to tune her exactly to Ganondorf's specifications?"

"Now you've ruined her!" Kotake added. "It will take AGES for us to spin that spell again!"

"DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Nabooru screamed. "YOU WON'T HAVE ME AGAIN, YOU HAGS! NEVER!"

"Never is a strong word, little girl," Koume threatened.

"You'll see what such arrogant confidence will get you," Kotake added.

Two glints of light, one red and one blue were suddenly shining in the corners of Nabooru's eyes, and with a strength she hadn't known she had at the moment, she sprang to her feet and sped towards the chamber door, desperate for escape. Her legs were still weak and her body didn't have the energy to take her far, but she stumbled and was just close enough…

"NABOORU!" Link screamed behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder for just a second.

Suddenly, her body was engulfed in light and there was the feeling of flying away, out through the ceiling of the temple, out of the desert… out of the world.

* * *

_Good morning, cousin… lovely to speak to you again._

_You were right about one thing all those years ago, Ganny. I didn't understand, but now I do… I understand everything. I've finally awoken._

_I understand that you're no longer the man I knew, and that I will destroy you, utterly and completely, no matter what it takes. You've woken me up indeed, dear cousin…_

_I am the Sage of Spirit. And you will have no sympathy from me. _

_You've squandered it; everything… everyone who ever loved you has turned against you. Your people think you weak. You killed my mother. I will never forgive you for what you've done to me…_

_And your precious outsider woman? Hahahaha… _

_Your days are numbered, Ganondorf. You have sinned and you will be destroyed as punishment. _

_The Sages are united. _

_You **will** fall from grace, and you **will** lose everything. _

_And **no one** in the world will pity you, King of Evil. _

* * *

"My Lady Din has forsaken me…"

"My lord?"

"Yes… my Lady Din has forsaken me... how could I have been so stupid? I was foolish… foolish to have taken her sacred power into this world and corrupted it…"

Aveil was the youngest of Ganondorf's several trusted lieutenants and the mother of his second daughter. She normally served as the head of the fortress troops, but had recently been recruited to serving him in the palace in Marya's stead. Despite the nature of the relationship she'd had with him in the past, she did not often spend time with him and had not yet witnessed how seemingly delirious he became when things did not go as planned.

She gritted her teeth and took a few steps away from her lord as he paced around his throne, smiling, talking almost to himself—and if to her, then she had no idea what he was talking about. It was nonsense… Baffling, ridiculous nonsense—but by the way he spoke he recited it as though it were common fact.

"It is no wonder I have failed, and failed so many times… I wield a weak power, a power extinguished by greed and lust…"

Aveil had been afraid of this, when she heard the news… received the orders to come to him with a report. Normally the reports were simple, number of kills, current food supplies and the state of critical battles across the kingdom.

Today's report was quite distressing.

Troops surveying the Spirit Temple had found them—or what remained of them in any case, a pile of dust sprinkled with blood and strips of ripped clothing, a gleaming blue and red jewel marking the place where they had fallen as a single body.

The battle had no doubt been fierce, as the scorch marks and melting slicks of sparkling ice could explain. It was obvious that the two old hags had done their best, but in the end brought down by the vicious swings of a holy sword.

And as if that weren't enough, there had been voices echoing through the temple for the first time in many years—the voices of the spirits, long silenced by the presence of the old witches in the sacred halls. Voices that laughed and spoke of vengeance and justice, voices that warned of the coming of a prophecy…

Voices that reached Ganondorf in his sleep that night and were just confirmed by Aveil's report.

"The Triforce pieces alone are weak… easily tainted… and I, I was vain to believe I could protect it by myself… The divine power of the goddesses doesn't stand a chance against corruption… the vile, impure corruption of the mortal world…"

"I'm afraid I don't understand, my lord," Aveil spoke up quietly.

"The Triforce of Power, my dear," Ganondorf turned to her, sweeping across the room to the altar upon which he cast his dark spells, brushing away the accumulated ashes and clutter. "Its power is unlimited and undefeatable, is it not?"

"That's what the legends say, my lord."

"The legends are wrong… the legends speak of a Triforce uncorrupted by this filthy mortal realm. That is the piece which possesses unlimited power… the power of the gods, the power which my birthright grants me," Ganondorf explained hurriedly, as though this was a major epiphany to him. "Yes… how could I hope to attain godhood with a tainted power? It is not surprising, then, I would fail… fail to destroy him, fail to take her…"

Aveil shifted uncomfortably behind him as he continued talking to himself.

"Things must change… I must destroy the corruption in this tainted power… I must purify it… Yes, I understand now… With the other two pieces of the Triforce in my grasp, I shall be able to cleanse away the corruption…"

"My lord? I don't understand what you mean…"

"Great Din, Lady of Flame, Golden Goddess of Power, I beseech you. Guide me in my pursuits, bless me with your grace, pity my weak mortal soul and grant me your favor…"

With a wave of Ganondorf's hands, the altar was engulfed in flame as it had before. "Great Din, Lady of Flame, Golden Goddess of Power, Patroness of the Triforce of Power, I am your humble servant. My most gracious praises to you and your divine sisters… I ask as your eternal slave, my lady, allow me to partake in your wisdom…"

He turned suddenly and lunged towards Aveil, grasping her by the arm and yanking her towards him roughly. She let out a sharp cry as he crushed her against the altar with his body and held out her arm. "Ah, my lord! Don't!"

"I offer blood in your honor. Drink of this blood, accept my sacrifice, find me worthy of your gifts and provide me with your infinite knowledge," Ganondorf droned on, drawing a long knife across both Aveil's arm and his own, inciting a cry of pain from his lieutenant.

He ignored the way she shivered and moaned, watching the blood pooling and dripping slowly off Aveil's fingertips—her own deep red blood mixing with Ganondorf's, which glowed with a faint and unreal tinge of gold.

The flames burst again, swirling and roaring up towards the ceiling as misty smoke poured from their crests. He fell to his knees, shoving Aveil away roughly and sending her sprawled out on the floor as he raised his hands.

"Tell me where she is! Tell me where Princess Zelda is hiding!"

This time, no interruptions could distract him. Visions filled his head, smoke and flame, heavy and intense, visions of a forest… a dark forest…

* * *

A shadow leapt through the trees, eyes set straight ahead and never turning from their destination—the Temple of Time, where he was waiting for them…

Them? This lowly Sheikah boy?

No… no, not at all. The Princess of Destiny. The Seventh Sage of Time.

The Triforce of Wisdom…

* * *

The flames smoldered away and the smoke began to clear, and Ganondorf leaned against the altar in exhaustion, Triforce piece shining brilliantly on the back of his hand and a vague, empty smile on his face.

Aveil clutched at the bleeding wound on her arm and began to crawl away, terrified out of her wits as he began to laugh, a cold, empty sound.

"I will cleanse this power… I will cleanse this world… And I will become, truly, a god."

* * *

_You've squandered it; everything… everyone who ever loved you has turned against you. Your people think you weak. You killed my mother. I will never forgive you for what you've done to me…_

_And your precious outsider woman? Hahahaha… _

_She speaks constantly of your demise. She plots with the other Sages how best to kill you—she shows not a bit of concern for you, thinking only of what she will do once you are dead and how Hyrule will improve after that day._

_It's hilarious… you pine and you angst and you drown yourself in your sorrow over losing her and your deepest affections for her and she doesn't return them in the least. _

_But by all means, Ganny. Plot away at how best to win her back. Scheme your black little heart out in desperation for the woman who no longer loves you, if she ever did. _

_I hope it's all been worth it, you pathetic bastard. _

* * *

Corruption.

Corruption was always the root of the problem. Power and wealth and noble blood do not cause misery and pain. The root of suffering is the corruption of those who hold that power.

The golden power of the gods, the Triforce, was a neutral power. It took on the characteristics of whoever it touched—if held by a person of good heart, it would become a benevolent power to bless the land of Hyrule in its light.

If held by a person with a selfish heart, or a heart filled with selfishness or wrath, it would engulf the land in darkness and suffering.

Hyrule suffered because the Triforce had become tainted.

And now, he sought to erase that taint and purify the power of the Triforce—first, by reclaiming the two lost pieces from their carriers and elevating himself to godhood. Time, nature, fate, the divine, the world itself, _everything _would be his to control.

And then, he would reshape the entire world. The corrupt world, the world of greed, violence and lust that had twisted his noble intentions and stolen his deepest desires.

The entire world was corrupt, and Ganondorf was the only one who realized it. And now, he intended to fix it.

* * *

Woooow. Talk about denial. Somebody's CRAAAAAZY… ANYWAY- Once again, I apologize for the extremely long wait for this chapter and also for the lack of nice G/I, for those who were waiting for it after so long. Next chapter will be the giant crazy climactic chapter and the final battle, and the chapter following will be the final one—the epilogue.

And boy, oh boy is it gonna be depressing.

So, er, thank you for reading, everyone, now go have yourself some ice cream and cheer up:D


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